CN115038983A - Multiple downlink positioning technology capability - Google Patents

Multiple downlink positioning technology capability Download PDF

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Publication number
CN115038983A
CN115038983A CN202180012409.3A CN202180012409A CN115038983A CN 115038983 A CN115038983 A CN 115038983A CN 202180012409 A CN202180012409 A CN 202180012409A CN 115038983 A CN115038983 A CN 115038983A
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Prior art keywords
positioning
positioning method
combination
indication
capability
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CN202180012409.3A
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Chinese (zh)
Inventor
A·马诺拉科斯
S·阿卡拉卡兰
L·肖
G·R·欧普斯奥格
P·加尔
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Qualcomm Inc
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Qualcomm Inc
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    • G—PHYSICS
    • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
    • G01S—RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION OR RERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES
    • G01S5/00—Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more direction or position line determinations; Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more distance determinations
    • G01S5/0009—Transmission of position information to remote stations
    • G01S5/0018—Transmission from mobile station to base station
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
    • G01S—RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION OR RERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES
    • G01S5/00—Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more direction or position line determinations; Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more distance determinations
    • G01S5/02—Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more direction or position line determinations; Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more distance determinations using radio waves
    • G01S5/0257—Hybrid positioning
    • G01S5/0268—Hybrid positioning by deriving positions from different combinations of signals or of estimated positions in a single positioning system
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W64/00—Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
    • H04W64/003—Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management locating network equipment
    • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
    • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
    • Y02D—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES [ICT], I.E. INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES AIMING AT THE REDUCTION OF THEIR OWN ENERGY USE
    • Y02D30/00—Reducing energy consumption in communication networks
    • Y02D30/70—Reducing energy consumption in communication networks in wireless communication networks

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Radar, Positioning & Navigation (AREA)
  • Remote Sensing (AREA)
  • Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
  • Signal Processing (AREA)
  • Mobile Radio Communication Systems (AREA)
  • Position Fixing By Use Of Radio Waves (AREA)
  • Radar Systems Or Details Thereof (AREA)
  • Transceivers (AREA)

Abstract

A User Equipment (UE), comprising: a transceiver configured to receive a positioning signal; a memory; and a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory, configured to: transmitting, via the transceiver, a capability indication to a network entity, the capability indication comprising a first positioning method indication indicating that a processor supports simultaneous processing of a first positioning method combination; and simultaneously processing one or more first positioning signals according to the first positioning method combination to determine first positioning information of the UE.

Description

Multiple downlink positioning technology capability
Background
Wireless communication systems have evolved through generations, including first generation analog wireless telephone service (1G), second generation (2G) digital wireless telephone service (including temporary 2.5G and 2.75G networks), third generation (3G) high speed data, internet-capable wireless service, fourth generation (4G) service (e.g., Long Term Evolution (LTE) or WiMax), fifth generation (5G) service, and so forth. There are many different types of wireless communication systems in use today, including cellular as well as Personal Communication Services (PCS) systems. Examples of known cellular systems include the cellular analog Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), and digital cellular systems based on: code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), global system for mobile access (GSM) variants of TDMA, and the like.
Fifth generation (5G) mobile standards require higher data transfer speeds, a larger number of connections and better coverage, among other improvements. According to the next generation mobile network alliance, the 5G standard is designed to provide data rates of tens of megabits per second to each of thousands of users, with 1 gigabit per second being provided to tens of workers on an office floor. Hundreds of thousands of simultaneous connections should be supported in order to support large sensor deployments. Therefore, the spectral efficiency of 5G mobile communication should be significantly enhanced compared to the current 4G standard. Furthermore, the signaling efficiency should be enhanced and the latency should be reduced considerably compared to the current standard.
Disclosure of Invention
In an embodiment, a User Equipment (UE) includes: a transceiver configured to receive a positioning signal; a memory; and a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory, configured to: transmitting, via the transceiver, a capability indication to a network entity, the capability indication comprising a first positioning method indication indicating that the processor supports simultaneous processing of a first positioning method combination; and simultaneously processing one or more first positioning signals according to the first positioning method combination to determine first positioning information for the UE.
Implementations of such a UE may include one or more of the following features. The capability indication comprises a first frequency band indication indicating a first frequency band to which the first positioning method indication applies. The capability indication includes: a second positioning method indication indicating that the processor supports simultaneous processing of a second positioning method combination; and a second frequency band indication indicating a second frequency band to which the second positioning method indication applies; wherein the processor is configured to: processing one or more second positioning signals simultaneously according to the second positioning method combination to determine second positioning information for the UE. The processor is configured to: reporting, to the network entity, second positioning information of the UE includes one or more measurements corresponding to the second positioning method combination.
Additionally or alternatively, implementations of such a UE may include one or more of the following features. The capability indication is to indicate a positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to the first positioning method combination. The capability indication includes: a first positioning processing capability indication corresponding to a first positioning method of the first combination of positioning methods, and a second positioning processing capability indication corresponding to a second positioning method of the first combination of positioning methods. The first positioning method combination comprises a first positioning method and a second positioning method, and the capability indication comprises a third positioning method indication indicating a third positioning method, the processor being configured to implement the third positioning method without simultaneously implementing either the first positioning method or the second positioning method. The first positioning method, the second positioning method, and the third positioning method are all different positioning methods.
Additionally or alternatively, implementations of such a UE may include one or more of the following features. The capability indication comprises a first band combination indication indicating a first carrier aggregation band combination to which the first positioning method indication applies. The capability indication includes: a second positioning method indication indicating that the processor supports simultaneous processing of a second positioning method combination; and a second band combination indication indicating a second carrier aggregation band combination to which the second positioning method indication applies. The first positioning method combination includes a first positioning method and a second positioning method, and the capability indication indicates a positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to each of the first positioning method and the second positioning method. The first positioning method combination comprises a first positioning method and a second positioning method, and the capability indication is used for indicating the positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to the first positioning method and the second positioning method combined. The first positioning method combination comprises a first positioning method and a second positioning method, and the capability indication is used for indicating a first positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to the first positioning method and a second positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to the second positioning method.
Additionally or alternatively, implementations of such a UE may include one or more of the following features. The first positioning method combination includes at least two of a downlink time difference of arrival (DL-TDOA), an emission angle (AoD), an incidence angle (AoA), and a multiple round trip time (multiple RTT). The first positioning method combination comprises AoD and DL-TDOA, the capability indication comprises a second positioning method indication indicating that the processor supports simultaneous processing of a second positioning method combination, and the second positioning method combination comprises multiple RTTs and AoD. The processor is configured to: reporting, to the network entity, the first positioning information of the UE corresponds to the first positioning method combination.
In an embodiment, a method of determining positioning information includes: transmitting, from a User Equipment (UE), a capability indication to a network entity, the capability indication comprising a first positioning method indication indicating that the UE supports simultaneous processing of a first positioning method combination; and simultaneously processing one or more first positioning signals according to the first positioning method combination to determine first positioning information for the UE.
Implementations of such methods may include one or more of the following features. The capability indication comprises a first frequency band indication indicating a first frequency band to which the first positioning method indication applies. The capability indication includes: a second positioning method indication indicating that the UE supports simultaneous processing of a second positioning method combination; and a second frequency band indication indicating a second frequency band to which the second positioning method indication applies. The method comprises the following steps: concurrently processing one or more second positioning signals according to the second positioning method combination to determine second positioning information for the UE; and reporting second positioning information of the UE to the network entity including one or more measurements corresponding to the second positioning method combination.
Additionally or alternatively, implementations of such methods may include one or more of the following features. The capability indication is to indicate a positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to the first positioning method combination. The capability indication includes: a first positioning processing capability indication corresponding to a first positioning method of the first combination of positioning methods, and a second positioning processing capability indication corresponding to a second positioning method of the first combination of positioning methods. The first positioning method combination comprises a first positioning method and a second positioning method, and the capability indication comprises a third positioning method indication indicating a third positioning method, the UE being configured to implement the third positioning method without simultaneously implementing the first positioning method or the second positioning method. The first positioning method, the second positioning method, and the third positioning method are all different positioning methods.
Additionally or alternatively, implementations of such methods may include one or more of the following features. The capability indication comprises a first band combination indication indicating a first carrier aggregation band combination to which the first positioning method indication applies. The capability indication includes: a second positioning method indication indicating that the UE supports simultaneous processing of a second positioning method combination; and a second band combination indication indicating a second carrier aggregation band combination to which the second positioning method indication applies. The first positioning method combination includes a first positioning method and a second positioning method, and the capability indication indicates a positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to each of the first positioning method and the second positioning method. The first positioning method combination comprises a first positioning method and a second positioning method, and the capability indication indicates a positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to the first positioning method and the second positioning method combined. The first positioning method combination comprises a first positioning method and a second positioning method, and the capability indication is used for indicating a first positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to the first positioning method and a second positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to the second positioning method.
Additionally or alternatively, implementations of such methods may include one or more of the following features. The first positioning method combination includes at least two of a downlink time difference of arrival (DL-TDOA), an emission angle (AoD), an incidence angle (AoA), and a multiple round trip time (multiple RTT). The first positioning method combination comprises AoD and DL-TDOA, the capability indication comprises a second positioning method indication indicating that the UE supports simultaneous processing of a second positioning method combination, and the second positioning method combination comprises multiple RTTs and AoD. The method comprises the following steps: reporting, to the network entity, the first positioning information of the UE corresponds to the first positioning method combination. The network entity is a location server.
In an embodiment, a UE includes: a capability unit to send a capability indication to a network entity, the capability indication comprising a first positioning method indication indicating that the UE supports simultaneous processing of a first positioning method combination; and a positioning unit for simultaneously processing one or more first positioning signals according to the first positioning method combination to determine first positioning information of the UE.
Implementations of such a UE may include one or more of the following features. The capability indication comprises a first frequency band indication indicating a first frequency band to which the first positioning method indication applies. The capability indication includes: a second positioning method indication indicating that the UE supports simultaneous processing of a second positioning method combination; and a second frequency band indication indicating a second frequency band to which the second positioning method indication applies; wherein the positioning unit includes: means for processing one or more second positioning signals simultaneously according to the second positioning method combination to determine second positioning information for the UE. The UE comprises: means for reporting to the network entity that second positioning information of the UE includes one or more measurements corresponding to the second positioning method combination.
Additionally or alternatively, implementations of such a UE may include one or more of the following features. The capability indication is to indicate a positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to the first positioning method combination. The capability indication includes: a first positioning processing capability indication corresponding to a first positioning method of the first combination of positioning methods, and a second positioning processing capability indication corresponding to a second positioning method of the first combination of positioning methods. The first positioning method combination comprises the first positioning method and the second positioning method, and the capability indication comprises a third positioning method indication indicating a third positioning method, the UE being configured to implement the third positioning method without simultaneously implementing the first positioning method or the second positioning method. The first positioning method, the second positioning method, and the third positioning method are all different positioning methods.
Additionally or alternatively, implementations of such a UE may include one or more of the following features. The capability indication comprises a first band combination indication indicating a first carrier aggregation band combination to which the first positioning method indication applies. The capability indication includes: a second positioning method indication indicating that the UE supports simultaneous processing of a second positioning method combination; and a second band combination indication indicating a second carrier aggregation band combination to which the second positioning method indication applies. The first positioning method combination includes a first positioning method and a second positioning method, and the capability indication indicates a positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to each of the first positioning method and the second positioning method. The first positioning method combination comprises a first positioning method and a second positioning method, and the capability indication is used for indicating the positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to the first positioning method and the second positioning method combined. The first positioning method combination comprises a first positioning method and a second positioning method, and the capability indication is used for indicating a first positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to the first positioning method and a second positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to the second positioning method.
Additionally or alternatively, implementations of such a UE may include one or more of the following features. The first positioning method combination includes at least two of a downlink time difference of arrival (DL-TDOA), an emission angle (AoD), an incidence angle (AoA), and a multiple round trip time (multiple RTT). The first positioning method combination comprises AoD and DL-TDOA, the capability indication comprises a second positioning method indication indicating that the UE supports simultaneous processing of a second positioning method combination, and the second positioning method combination comprises multiple RTTs and AoD. The UE includes: means for reporting to the network entity that the first positioning information of the UE corresponds to the first positioning method combination.
In an embodiment, a non-transitory processor-readable storage medium includes processor-readable instructions to cause a processor of a UE to: sending a capability indication to a network entity, the capability indication comprising a first positioning method indication indicating that the UE supports simultaneous processing of a first positioning method combination; and processing one or more first positioning signals simultaneously according to the first positioning method combination to determine first positioning information for the UE.
Implementations of such a storage medium may include one or more of the following features. The capability indication comprises a first frequency band indication indicating a first frequency band to which the first positioning method indication applies. The capability indication includes: a second positioning method indication indicating that the UE supports simultaneous processing of a second positioning method combination; and a second frequency band indication indicating a second frequency band to which the second positioning method indication applies; wherein the instructions include instructions to cause the processor to: processing one or more second positioning signals simultaneously according to the second positioning method combination to determine second positioning information for the UE. The instructions include instructions to cause the processor to: reporting, to the network entity, second positioning information of the UE includes one or more measurements corresponding to the second positioning method combination.
Additionally or alternatively, implementations of such a storage medium may include one or more of the following features. The capability indication is to indicate a positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to the first positioning method combination. The capability indication includes: a first positioning processing capability indication corresponding to a first positioning method of the first combination of positioning methods, and a second positioning processing capability indication corresponding to a second positioning method of the first combination of positioning methods. The first positioning method combination comprises the first positioning method and the second positioning method, and the capability indication comprises a third positioning method indication indicating a third positioning method, the UE being configured to implement the third positioning method without simultaneously implementing the first positioning method or the second positioning method. The first positioning method, the second positioning method, and the third positioning method are all different positioning methods.
Additionally or alternatively, implementations of such a storage medium may include one or more of the following features. The capability indication comprises a first band combination indication indicating a first carrier aggregation band combination to which the first positioning method indication applies. The capability indication includes: a second positioning method indication indicating that the processor supports simultaneous processing of a second positioning method combination; and a second band combination indication indicating a second carrier aggregation band combination to which the second positioning method indication applies. The first positioning method combination includes a first positioning method and a second positioning method, and the capability indication indicates a positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to each of the first positioning method and the second positioning method. The first positioning method combination comprises a first positioning method and a second positioning method, and the capability indication indicates a positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to the first positioning method and the second positioning method combined. The first positioning method combination comprises a first positioning method and a second positioning method, and the capability indication indicates a first positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to the first positioning method and a second positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to the second positioning method.
Additionally or alternatively, implementations of such a storage medium may include one or more of the following features. The first positioning method combination includes at least two of a downlink time difference of arrival (DL-TDOA), an emission angle (AoD), an incidence angle (AoA), and a multiple round trip time (multiple RTT). The first positioning method combination comprises AoD and DL-TDOA, the capability indication comprises a second positioning method indication indicating that the processor supports simultaneous processing of a second positioning method combination, and the second positioning method combination comprises multiple RTTs and AoD. The instructions include instructions to cause the processor to: reporting, to the network entity, the first positioning information of the UE corresponds to the first positioning method combination.
Drawings
Fig. 1 is a simplified diagram of an example wireless communication system.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of components of the example user device shown in FIG. 1.
Fig. 3 is a block diagram of components of the example transmit/receive point shown in fig. 1.
FIG. 4 is a block diagram of components of the example server shown in FIG. 1.
Fig. 5 is a block diagram of an example user device.
Fig. 6 is a signaling and process flow for reporting positioning capabilities and determining and reporting positioning information.
Fig. 7 is a simplified diagram of the content of a support message indicating the supported positioning methods and the corresponding frequency bands and processing capabilities.
Fig. 8 is a simplified diagram of the content of a support message indicating the supported positioning methods and the corresponding band combinations and processing capabilities.
Fig. 9 is a block flow diagram of a method of determining positioning information.
Detailed Description
Techniques for reporting one or more supported positioning method combinations and corresponding frequency bands or frequency band combinations and corresponding processing capabilities are discussed herein. A User Equipment (UE) may provide information about frequency bands and corresponding positioning methods supported by the UE, including combinations of positioning methods that the UE supports simultaneous processing (i.e., may be implemented simultaneously). The UE may also or alternatively provide information regarding the band combinations and corresponding positioning methods supported by the UE, including positioning method combinations that the UE supports simultaneous processing (i.e., may be implemented simultaneously). The UE may also provide an indication of the processing capabilities of the UE for the positioning method when a frequency band or combination of frequency bands is being used. The UE may be able to provide different capabilities for the method based on the frequency band or combination of frequency bands. The server may be able to use the information provided by the UE to select (possibly change) a positioning signal configuration to increase the positioning processing capability of the UE. Band combining may be requested (e.g., by the UE or a server) to help increase the location processing capabilities of the UE. However, other configurations may be used.
The items and/or techniques described herein may provide one or more of the following capabilities as well as other capabilities not mentioned. The positioning processing power utilization of the user equipment may be improved. The power used for positioning determination of the UE may be used more efficiently, e.g., by reducing the energy wasted providing the UE with positioning signals that the UE will at least not fully process. Other capabilities may be provided, and not every implementation consistent with the present disclosure necessarily provides any, let alone all, of the capabilities discussed.
For many applications including, for example, emergency calls, personal navigation, consumer asset tracking, locating friends or family members, etc., it may be useful to obtain the location of a mobile device that is accessing a wireless network. Existing positioning methods include methods based on measuring radio signals transmitted from a variety of devices, including Satellite Vehicles (SVs) and terrestrial wireless sources in wireless networks, such as base stations and access points. It is expected that standardization of 5G wireless networks will include support for various positioning methods that may utilize reference signals transmitted by base stations in a manner similar to LTE wireless networks currently utilizing Positioning Reference Signals (PRS) and/or cell-specific reference signals (CRS) for positioning determinations.
The description may refer to sequences of actions to be performed by, for example, elements of a computing device. Various actions described herein can be performed by specific circuits (e.g., Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs)), by program instructions being executed by one or more processors, or by a combination of both. The sequence of actions described herein can be embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon a corresponding set of computer instructions that upon execution will cause an associated processor to perform the functions described herein. Thus, the various aspects described herein may be embodied in a number of different forms, all of which are within the scope of the present disclosure, including the claimed subject matter.
As used herein, unless otherwise specified, the terms "user equipment" (UE) and "base station" are not specific to or otherwise limited to any particular Radio Access Technology (RAT). In general, such a UE may be any wireless communication device (e.g., a mobile phone, router, tablet, laptop, consumer asset tracking device, internet of things (IoT) device, etc.) used by a user to communicate over a wireless communication network. The UE may be mobile or may be stationary (e.g., at certain times) and may communicate with a Radio Access Network (RAN). As used herein, the term "UE" may be interchangeably referred to as an "access terminal" or "AT," "client device," "wireless device," "subscriber terminal," "subscriber station," "user terminal" or UT, "mobile terminal," "mobile station," or variations thereof. In general, a UE may communicate with a core network via a RAN, and through the core network, the UE may connect with an external network such as the internet and other UEs. Of course, other mechanisms of connecting to the core network and/or the internet are also possible for the UE, such as over a wired access network, a WiFi network (e.g., based on IEEE 802.11, etc.), and so on.
A base station may operate in accordance with one of several RATs to communicate with UEs, depending on the network in which it is deployed, and may alternatively be referred to as an Access Point (AP), a network node, a node B, an evolved node B (enb), a general node B (gbnodeb, gNB), etc. Additionally, in some systems, the base station may provide pure edge node signaling functionality, while in other systems it may provide additional control and/or network management functionality.
The UE may be implemented by any of a number of types of devices, including but not limited to Printed Circuit (PC) cards, compact flash devices, external or internal modems, wireless or wired telephones, smart phones, tablet devices, consumer asset tracking devices, asset tags, and the like. The communication link through which the UE sends signals to the RAN is called an uplink channel (e.g., a reverse traffic channel, a reverse control channel, an access channel, etc.). The communication link through which the RAN can send signals to the UEs is called a downlink or forward link channel (e.g., paging channel, control channel, broadcast channel, forward traffic channel, etc.). As used herein, the term Traffic Channel (TCH) may refer to an uplink/reverse or downlink/forward traffic channel.
As used herein, the term "cell" or "sector" can correspond to one of a plurality of cells of a base station or the base station itself, depending on the context. The term "cell" may refer to a logical communication entity for communication with a base station (e.g., on a carrier) and may be associated with an identifier (e.g., Physical Cell Identifier (PCID), Virtual Cell Identifier (VCID)) for distinguishing neighboring cells operating via the same or different carrier. In some examples, a carrier may support multiple cells, and different cells may be configured according to different protocol types (e.g., Machine Type Communication (MTC), narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT), enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), or other protocol types) that may provide access for different types of devices. In some examples, the term "cell" may refer to a portion (e.g., a sector) of a geographic coverage area over which a logical entity operates.
Referring to fig. 1, an example of a communication system 100 includes a UE 105, a UE 106, a Radio Access Network (RAN)135, here a fifth generation (5G) Next Generation (NG) RAN (NG-RAN), and a 5G core network (5GC) 140. UE 105 and/or UE 106 may be, for example, IoT devices, location tracker devices, cellular phones, vehicles, or other devices. The 5G network may also be referred to as a New Radio (NR) network; the NG-RAN 135 may be referred to as a 5G RAN or an NR RAN; and 5GC 140 may be referred to as NG core Network (NGC). Standardization of NG-RAN and 5GC is ongoing in the third generation partnership project (3 GPP). Accordingly, the NG-RAN 135 and 5GC 140 may conform to current or future standards from 3GPP for 5G support. RAN 135 may be another type of RAN, such as a 3G RAN, a 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) RAN, and so on. UE 106 may be similarly configured and coupled to UE 105 to transmit signals to and/or receive signals from similar other entities in system 100, although such signaling is not shown in fig. 1 for simplicity of the figure. Similarly, for simplicity, the discussion focuses on the UE 105. The communication system 100 may use information from the constellation 185 of Satellite Vehicles (SVs) 190, 191, 192, 193 for a Satellite Positioning System (SPS) (e.g., Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)), such as Global Positioning System (GPS), global navigation satellite system (GLONASS), galileo, or beidou or some other local or regional SPS, such as Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), or Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS). Additional components of communication system 100 are described below. Communication system 100 may include additional or alternative components.
As shown in fig. 1, the NG-RAN 135 includes NR node bs (gnbs) 110a, 110b and next generation enodebs (NG-enbs) 114, and the 5GC 140 includes an access and mobility management function (AMF)115, a Session Management Function (SMF)117, a Location Management Function (LMF)120, and a Gateway Mobile Location Center (GMLC) 125. gNB 110a,110b and ng-eNB 114 are communicatively coupled to each other, each configured to wirelessly communicate bi-directionally with UE 105, and each communicatively coupled to AMF 115, and configured to communicate bi-directionally with AMF 115. The gNBs 110a, 110b, and ng-eNB 114 may be referred to as Base Stations (BSs). AMF 115, SMF 117, LMF 120, and GMLC 125 are communicatively coupled to each other and to external client 130. SMF 117 may serve as the initial point of contact for a Service Control Function (SCF) (not shown) to create, control, and delete media sessions. The BSs 110a, 110b, 114 may be macro cells (e.g., high power cellular base stations) or small cells (e.g., low power cellular base stations) or access points (e.g., short range base stations configured to communicate with other devices such as WiFi, WiFi-direct (WiFi-D), or the like,
Figure BDA0003777899050000061
Short-range technologies of low energy (BLE), Zigbee, etc. One or more of the BSs 110a, 110b, 114 may be configured to communicate with the UE 105 via multiple carriers. Each of the BSs 110a, 110b, 114 may provide communication coverage for a respective geographic area (e.g., cell). Each cell may be divided into a plurality of sectors according to the base station antenna.
FIG. 1 provides a general illustration of various components, any or all of which may be used as appropriate, and each of which may be duplicated or omitted as desired. In particular, although only one UE 105 is shown, many UEs (e.g., hundreds, thousands, millions, etc.) may be utilized in the communication system 100. Similarly, communication system 100 may include a greater (or lesser) number of SVs (i.e., more or less than the four SVs 190 and 193 shown), gnbs 110a, 110b, ng-eNB 114, AMF 115, external clients 130, and/or other components. The illustrated connections connecting the various components in the communication system 100 include data and signaling connections that may include additional (intermediate) components, direct or indirect physical and/or wireless connections, and/or additional networks. Further, components may be rearranged, combined, separated, replaced, and/or omitted depending on desired functions.
Although fig. 1 illustrates a 5G-based network, similar network implementations and configurations may be used for other communication technologies, such as 3G, Long Term Evolution (LTE), and so on. Implementations described herein (whether they are for 5G technology and/or for one or more other communication technologies and/or protocols) may be used to transmit (or broadcast) directional synchronization signals at a UE (e.g., UE 105), receive and measure directional signals, and/or provide location assistance to the UE 105 (via GMLC 125 or other location server), and/or calculate the location of the UE 105 at a location-capable device (such as UE 105, gNB 110a, 110b, or LMF 120) based on measured quantities of signals received at the UE 105 for such directional transmissions. A Gateway Mobile Location Center (GMLC)125, a Location Management Function (LMF)120, an access and mobility management function (AMF)115, an SMF 117, an ng-enb (enodeb)114 and a gnb (gnnodeb) 110a, 110b are examples and may be replaced by or include various other location server functions and/or base station functions, respectively, in various embodiments.
System 100 is capable of wireless communication in that the components of system 100 may communicate (at least sometimes using wireless connections) with each other directly or indirectly (e.g., via BSs 110a, 110b, 114 and/or network 140 (and/or one or more other devices not shown, such as one or more other base transceiver stations)). For indirect communications, the communications may be altered during transmission from one entity to another, e.g., changing header information of a data packet, changing a format, and so forth. The UE 105 may include multiple UEs and may be a mobile wireless communication device, but may communicate wirelessly and via a wired connection. The UE 105 may be any of a variety of devices, e.g., a smartphone, a tablet, a vehicle-based device, etc., but these are merely examples, as the UE 105 is not required to be any of these configurations, and other configurations of UEs may be used. Other UEs may include wearable devices (e.g., smart watches, smart jewelry, smart glasses, or headphones, etc.). Other UEs, whether currently existing or developed in the future, may also be used. Further, other wireless devices (whether mobile or not) may be implemented within system 100 and may communicate with each other and/or with UEs 105, BSs 110a, 110b, 114, core network 140, and/or external clients 130. For example, such other devices may include internet of things (IoT) devices, medical devices, home entertainment and/or automation devices, and so forth. Core network 140 may communicate with external clients 130 (e.g., computer systems), e.g., to allow external clients 130 to request and/or receive location information about UE 105 (e.g., via GMLC 125).
The UE 105 or other device may be configured to communicate in various networks and/or for various purposes and/or using various techniques (e.g., 5G, Wi-Fi communication, multiple frequencies of Wi-Fi communication, satellite positioning, one or more types of communication (e.g., GSM (global system for mobile), CDMA (code division multiple access), LTE (long term evolution), V2X (vehicle to everything such as V2P (vehicle to pedestrian), V2I (vehicle to infrastructure), V2V (vehicle to vehicle), etc.), IEEE 802.11p, etc.) V2X communication may be cellular (cell-V2X (C-V2X)) and/or WiFi (e.g., DSRC (dedicated short range connection)). the system 100 may support operation on multiple carriers (waveform signals of different frequencies) (CDMA) signals, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) signals, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) signals, single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) signals, and the like. Each modulated signal may be transmitted on a different carrier and may carry pilot, overhead information, data, and so on. The UEs 105, 106 may communicate with each other by transmitting on one or more sidelink channels, such as a Physical Sidelink Synchronization Channel (PSSCH), a Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel (PSBCH), or a Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCCH), through UE-to-UE Sidelink (SL) communication.
The UE 105 may include and/or may be referred to as a device, a mobile device, a wireless device, a mobile terminal, a Mobile Station (MS), a Secure User Plane Location (SUPL) -enabled terminal (SET), or some other name. Further, the UE 105 may correspond to a cell phone, smart phone, laptop, tablet, PDA, consumer asset, and a mobile phoneA tracking device, a navigation device, an internet of things (IoT) device, an asset tracker, a health monitor, a security system, a smart city sensor, a smart meter, a wearable tracker, or some other portable or mobile device. Typically, but not necessarily, the UE 105 may support wireless communications using one or more Radio Access Technologies (RATs), such as global system for mobile communications (GSM), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), wideband CDMA (wcdma), LTE, High Rate Packet Data (HRPD), IEEE 802.11 WiFi (also known as Wi-Fi), or wireless communication systems (WiFi),
Figure BDA0003777899050000071
(BT), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), 5G New Radio (NR) (e.g., using NG-RAN 135 and 5GC 140), and so on. The UE 105 may support wireless communications using a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) that may be connected to other networks (e.g., the internet) using, for example, a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) or packet cable. Using one or more of these RATs may allow the UE 105 to communicate with the external client 130 (e.g., via elements of the 5GC 140 not shown in fig. 1, or possibly via the GMLC 125) and/or allow the external client 130 to receive location information about the UE 105 (e.g., via the GMLC 125).
The UE 105 may comprise a single entity or may comprise multiple entities, such as in a personal area network, where a user may use audio, video, and/or data I/O (input/output) devices and/or body sensors, as well as separate wired or wireless modems. The estimate of the location of the UE 105 may be referred to as a location (position), a location estimate (position estimate), a location fix (position fix), a fix (fix), a position (position), a position estimate (position estimate), or a position fix (position fix), and may be geographic, thus providing location coordinates (e.g., latitude and longitude) for the UE 105 that may or may not include an altitude component (e.g., altitude above sea level, altitude above ground level, floor level, or basement level, or depth below ground level, floor level, or basement level). Alternatively, the location of the UE 105 may be represented as a citizenship location (e.g., as a postal address or designation of a certain point or small area in a building, such as a particular room or floor). The location of the UE 105 may be represented as an area or volume (defined geographically or in civic form) within which the UE 105 is expected to be located with some probability or confidence level (e.g., 67%, 95%, etc.). The location of the UE 105 may be represented as a relative location, including, for example, a distance and direction from a known location. The relative position may be represented as relative coordinates (e.g., X, Y (and Z) coordinates) defined relative to some origin at a known location, which may be defined, for example, geographically, in civil terms, or by reference to a point, area, or volume indicated, for example, on a map, floor plan, or building plan. In the description contained herein, the use of the term location may include any of these variations, unless otherwise indicated. When calculating the location of a UE, the local x, y and possibly z coordinates are typically solved and then converted to absolute coordinates (e.g., for latitude, longitude and altitude above or below average sea level) if needed.
The UE 105 may be configured to communicate with other entities using one or more of a variety of techniques. The UE 105 may be configured to indirectly connect to one or more communication networks via one or more device-to-device (D2D) peer-to-peer (P2P) links. Any suitable D2D Radio Access Technology (RAT) may be utilized, such as LTE direct (LTE-D), WiFi direct (WiFi-D), or,
Figure BDA0003777899050000082
Figure BDA0003777899050000081
Etc.) support D2D P2P links. One or more UEs of the group of UEs communicating with D2D may be within a geographic coverage area of a transmission/reception point (TRP), such as one or more of the gnbs 110a, 110b and/or ng-eNB 114. Other UEs in such a group may be outside such a geographic coverage area or may otherwise be unable to receive transmissions from the base station. A group of UEs communicating via D2D communication may utilize a one-to-many (1: M) system in which each UE may transmit to other UEs in the group. The TRP may facilitate scheduling of resources for D2D communication. In other cases, D2D communication may be performed between UEs without involving TRP. One or more UEs of the group of UEs communicating with D2D may be within the geographic coverage area of the TRP. Other UEs in such a group may be outside such a geographic coverage area or otherwise unable to receive transmissions from the base station. A group of UEs communicating via D2D communication may utilize a one-to-many (1: M) system in which each UE may transmit to other UEs in the group. The TRP may facilitate scheduling of resources for D2D communication. In other cases, D2D communication may be performed between UEs without involving TRP.
The Base Stations (BSs) in the NG-RAN 135 shown in fig. 1 include NR node BS, referred to as the gnbs 110a and 110B. Each pair of gnbs 110a, 110b in NG-RAN 135 may be interconnected via one or more other gnbs. The UE 105 is provided access to the 5G network via wireless communication between the UE 105 and one or more of the gnbs 110a, 110b, which may use 5G to provide wireless communication access to the 5GC 140 on behalf of the UE 105. In fig. 1, although it is assumed that the serving gNB of UE 105 is gNB 110a, another gNB (e.g., gNB 110b) may act as the serving gNB if UE 105 moves to another location, or may act as a secondary gNB to provide additional throughput and bandwidth to UE 105.
The Base Station (BS) in the NG-RAN 135 shown in fig. 1 may comprise NG-eNB 114, also referred to as a next generation evolved node B. NG-eNB 114 may be connected to one or more of the gnbs 110a, 110b in NG-RAN 135 via one or more other gnbs and/or one or more other NG-enbs. The ng-eNB 114 may provide LTE radio access and/or LTE evolved (LTE) radio access to the UE 105. One or more of the gnbs 110a, 110b and/or ng-enbs 114 may be configured to operate as positioning-only beacons that may transmit signals to assist in determining the location of the UE 105, but may not receive signals from the UE 105 or from other UEs.
The BSs 110a, 110b, 114 may each include one or more TRPs. For example, although each sector within a cell of a BS may include a TRP, multiple TRPs may share one or more components (e.g., share a processor, but have separate antennas). The system 100 may include only macro-TRPs, or the system 100 may have different types of TRPs, e.g., macro-TRPs, pico-TRPs, and/or femto-TRPs, etc. macro-TRPs may cover a relatively large geographic area (e.g., several kilometers in radius) and may allow unrestricted access by terminals with service subscriptions. A pico TRP may cover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., pico cell) and may allow unrestricted access by terminals with service subscriptions. A femto or home TRP may cover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a femto cell) and may allow restricted access by terminals having an association with the femto cell (e.g., terminals for users in the home).
As mentioned, although fig. 1 depicts nodes configured to communicate in accordance with a 5G communication protocol, nodes configured to communicate in accordance with other communication protocols (such as, for example, an LTE protocol or an IEEE 802.11x protocol) may be used. For example, in an Evolved Packet System (EPS) that provides LTE radio access to UEs 105, the RAN may comprise an evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN), which may include base stations including evolved node bs (enbs). The core network for EPS may include an Evolved Packet Core (EPC). The EPS may include E-UTRAN plus EPC, where E-UTRAN corresponds to NG-RAN 135 in fig. 1 and EPC corresponds to 5GC 140 in fig. 1.
The gnbs 110a, 110b and ng-eNB 114 may communicate with an AMF 115, and the AMF 115 communicates with an LMF 120 for location functions. The AMF 115 may support mobility of the UE 105 (including cell changes and handovers) and may participate in supporting signaling connections to the UE 105 and possible data and voice bearers for the UE 105. LMF 120 may communicate directly with UE 105 or directly with BSs 110a, 110b, 114, e.g., via wireless communication. The LMF 120 may support positioning of the UE 105 when the UE 105 accesses the NG-RAN 135, and may support positioning procedures/methods such as assisted GNSS (a-GNSS), observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) (e.g., Downlink (DL) OTDOA or Uplink (UL) OTDOA), Round Trip Time (RTT), multi-cell RTT, Real Time Kinematics (RTK), Precise Point Positioning (PPP), differential GNSS (dgs), enhanced cell ID (E-CID), angle of incidence (AoA), angle of emission (AoD), and/or other positioning methods. LMF 120 may process location service requests for UE 105 received, for example, from AMF 115 or from GMLC 125. LMF 120 may be connected to AMF 115 and/or GMLC 125. The LMF 120 may be referenced by other names such as Location Manager (LM), Location Function (LF), commercial LMF (clmf), or value-added LMF (vlmf). A node/system implementing LMF 120 may additionally or alternatively implement other types of location support modules, such as an enhanced serving mobile location center (E-SMLC) or a Secure User Plane Location (SUPL) location platform (SLP). At least a portion of the positioning functions (including derivation of the location of the UE 105) may be performed at the UE 105 (e.g., using signal measurements obtained by the UE 105 for signals transmitted by wireless nodes such as the gnbs 110a, 110b and/or the ng-eNB 114, and/or assistance data provided to the UE 105 by the LMF 120, for example). AMF 115 may serve as a control node that handles signaling between UE 105 and core network 140, and may provide QoS (quality of service) flows and session management. The AMF 115 may support mobility of the UE 105 (including cell changes and handovers) and may participate in supporting signaling connections to the UE 105.
GMLC 125 may support location requests for UE 105 received from external clients 130 and may forward such location requests to AMF 115 for forwarding by AMF 115 to LMF 120 or may forward the location requests directly to LMF 120. A location response (e.g., containing a location estimate for UE 105) from LMF 120 may be returned to GMLC 125, either directly or via AMF 115, and GMLC 125 may then return the location response (e.g., containing the location estimate) to external client 130. Although the GMLC 125 is shown connected to both the AMF 115 and the LMF 120, in some implementations, the 5GC 140 may support only one of these connections.
As further shown in fig. 1, LMF 120 may communicate with gnbs 110a, 110b and/or ng-eNB 114 using a new radio positioning protocol a (which may be referred to as NPPa or NRPPa) that may be defined in 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 38.455. The NRPPa may be the same as, similar to, or an extension of LTE positioning protocol a (lppa) defined in 3GPP TS 36.455, where NRPPa messages are transmitted between the gNB 110a (or gNB 110b) and LMF 120 and/or between the ng-eNB 114 and LMF 120 via AMF 115. As further shown in fig. 1, the LMF 120 and the UE 105 may communicate using the LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP), which may be defined in 3GPP TS 36.355. The LMF 120 and the UE 105 may also or alternatively communicate using a new radio positioning protocol (which may be referred to as NPP or NRPP), which may be the same as, similar to, or an extension of LPP. Here, LPP and/or NPP messages may be communicated between the UE 105 and the LMF 120 via the AMF 115 and the serving gnbs 110a, 110b or serving ng-eNB 114 for the UE 105. For example, LPP and/or NPP messages may be transmitted between LMF 120 and AMF 115 using a 5G location services application protocol (LCS AP), and may be transmitted between AMF 115 and UE 105 using a 5G non-access stratum (NAS) protocol. The LPP and/or NPP protocols may be used to support positioning of the UE 105 using UE-assisted and/or UE-based positioning methods, such as a-GNSS, RTK, OTDOA, and/or E-CID. The NRPPa protocol may be used to support positioning of UE 105 using network-based positioning methods such as E-CID (e.g., when used with measurements obtained by gNB 110a, 110b or ng-eNB 114), and/or may be used by LMF 120 to obtain location-related information from gNB 110a, 110b and/or ng-eNB 114, such as parameters defining directional SS transmissions from gNB 110a, 110b and/or ng-eNB 114. LMF 120 may be co-located or integrated with the gNB or TRP or may be disposed remotely from and configured to communicate directly or indirectly with the gNB and/or TRP.
With the UE-assisted positioning method, the UE 105 may obtain location measurements and send the measurements to a location server (e.g., LMF 120) to compute a location estimate for the UE 105. For example, the location measurements may include one or more of a Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI), a round trip signal propagation time (RTT), a Reference Signal Time Difference (RSTD), a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), and/or a Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ) for the gNB 110a, 110b, ng-eNB 114, and/or the WLAN AP. The position measurements may also or alternatively include GNSS pseudorange, code phase and/or carrier phase measurements for SV 190-193.
With a UE-based positioning method, the UE 105 may obtain location measurements (e.g., which may be the same or similar to location measurements of a UE-assisted positioning method) and may calculate the location of the UE 105 (e.g., via assistance data received from a location server such as the LMF 120 or broadcast by the gnbs 110a, 110b, ng-eNB 114, or other base stations or APs).
With network-based positioning methods, one or more base stations (e.g., gnbs 110a, 110b, and/or ng-eNB 114) or APs may obtain location measurements (e.g., measurements of RSSI, RTT, RSRP, RSRQ, or time of arrival (ToA) for signals transmitted by UE 105) and/or may receive measurements obtained by UE 105. One or more base stations or APs may send the measurements to a location server (e.g., LMF 120) for use in calculating a location estimate for UE 105.
The information provided by the gnbs 110a, 110b and/or ng-eNB 114 to the LMF 120 using NRPPa may include timing and configuration information for directional SS transmissions and location coordinates. The LMF 120 may provide some or all of this information as assistance data to the UE 105 in LPP and/or NPP messages via the NG-RANs 135 and the 5GC 140.
The LPP or NPP messages sent from the LMF 120 to the UE 105 may direct the UE 105 to perform any of a variety of things depending on the desired functionality. For example, the LPP or NPP message may contain instructions for the UE 105 to obtain measurements for GNSS (or A-GNSS), WLAN, E-CID, and/or OTDOA (or some other positioning method). In the case of an E-CID, the LPP or NPP message may direct the UE 105 to obtain one or more measurement quantities (e.g., beam ID, beam width, average angle, RSRP, RSRQ measurements) of directional signals sent within a particular cell supported by one or more of the gnbs 110a, 110b and/or ng-eNB 114 (or supported by some other type of base station such as an eNB or WiFi AP the UE 105 may send the measurement quantities back to the LMF 120 in an LPP or NPP message (e.g., within a 5G NAS message) via the serving gNB 110a (or serving ng-eNB 114) and AMF 115.
As mentioned, although communication system 100 is described with respect to 5G technology, communication system 100 may be implemented to support other communication technologies (such as GSM, WCDMA, LTE, etc.) that are used to support and interact with mobile devices such as UE 105 (e.g., to implement voice, data, positioning, and other functionality). In some such embodiments, the 5GC 140 may be configured to control different air interfaces. For example, the 5GC 140 may connect to the WLAN using a non-3 GPP interworking function (N3IWF, not shown in fig. 1) in the 5GC 150. For example, the WLAN may support IEEE 802.11WiFi access for the UE 105 and may include one or more WiFi APs. Here, the N3IWF may be connected to other elements in the WLAN and 5GC 140, such as the AMF 115. In some embodiments, both NG-RANs 135 and 5GC 140 may be replaced by one or more other RANs and one or more other core networks. For example, in EPS, NG-RAN 135 may be replaced by E-UTRAN containing enbs, and 5GC 140 may be replaced by EPC containing Mobility Management Entity (MME) (instead of AMF 115), E-SMLC (instead of LMF 120), and GMLC which may be similar to GMLC 125. In such an EPS, the E-SMLC may use LPPa (instead of NRPPa) to send and receive location information to and from an eNB in the E-UTRAN and may use LPP to support positioning of the UE 105. In these other embodiments, positioning of the UE 105 using directional PRS may be supported in a manner similar to that described herein for 5G networks, except that: in some cases, the functions and processes described herein for the gnbs 110a, 110b, ng-eNB 114, AMF 115, and LMF 120 may be alternatively applied to other network elements, such as enbs, WiFi aps, MMEs, and E-SMLCs.
As mentioned, in some embodiments, the positioning functionality may be implemented at least in part using directional SS beams transmitted by base stations (such as the gnbs 110a, 110b and/or ng-eNB 114) within range of the UE (e.g., UE 105 of fig. 1) whose positioning is to be determined. In some cases, the UE may use directional SS beams from multiple base stations (such as the gnbs 110a, 110b, ng-eNB 114, etc.) to compute the UE's position location.
Referring also to fig. 2, UE 200 is an example of one of UEs 105, 106, and includes a computing platform comprising: a processor 210, a memory 211 including Software (SW)212, one or more sensors 213, a transceiver interface 214 for a transceiver 215 (which includes a wireless transceiver 240 and a wired transceiver 250), a user interface 216, a Satellite Positioning System (SPS) receiver 217, a camera 218, and a Positioning Device (PD) 219. Processor 210, memory 211, sensors 213, transceiver interface 214, user interface 216, SPS receiver 217, camera 218, and positioning device 219 may be communicatively coupled to one another by a bus 220 (e.g., which may be configured for optical and/or electrical communication). One or more of the illustrated devices (e.g., one or more of the camera 218, the positioning apparatus 219, and/or the sensor 213, etc.) may be omitted from the UE 200. Processor 210 may include one or more intelligent hardware devices, such as a Central Processing Unit (CPU), microcontroller, Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), and the like. Processor 210 may include a plurality of processors including a general/application processor 230, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP)231, a modem processor 232, a video processor 233, and/or a sensor processor 234. One or more of the processors 230 and 234 may include multiple devices (e.g., multiple processors). For example, sensor processor 234 may include processors such as for radar, ultrasonic, and/or lidar, among others. Modem processor 232 may support dual SIM/dual connectivity (or even more SIMs). For example, an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) may use a SIM (subscriber identity module or subscriber identity module), and an end user of the UE 200 may use another SIM for connectivity. The memory 211 is a non-transitory storage medium that may include Random Access Memory (RAM), flash memory, optical disk memory, and/or Read Only Memory (ROM), among others. The memory 211 stores software 212, which software 212 may be processor-readable, processor-executable software code containing instructions configured to, when executed, cause the processor 210 to perform various functions described herein. Alternatively, the software 212 may not be directly executable by the processor 210, but may be configured to cause the processor 210 (e.g., when compiled and executed) to perform functions. The description may refer only to the processor 210 performing the functions, but this includes other implementations, such as the processor 210 executing software and/or firmware. This description may simply refer to one or more of the processors 230-234 as the processor 210 performing the function. The description may simply refer to one or more appropriate components of the UE 200 performing the functions as the UE 200 performing the functions. Processor 210 may include memory with stored instructions in addition to and/or in place of memory 211. The functionality of processor 210 is discussed more fully below.
The configuration of the UE 200 shown in fig. 2 is an example, not a limitation, of the invention including the claims, and other configurations may be used. For example, an example configuration of the UE includes one or more of the processor 230 and 234 of the processor 210, the memory 211, and the radio transceiver 240. Other example configurations include one or more of the processors 230-234 of the processor 210, the memory 211, the wireless transceiver 240, and one or more of the sensors 213, the user interface 216, the SPS receiver 217, the camera 218, the PD 219, and/or the wired transceiver 250.
The UE 200 may include a modem processor 232 that may be capable of performing baseband processing of signals received and downconverted by the transceiver 215 and/or the SPS receiver 217. The modem processor 232 may perform baseband processing of signals to be upconverted for transmission by the transceiver 215. Additionally or alternatively, baseband processing may be performed by processor 230 and/or DSP 231. However, other configurations may be used to perform baseband processing.
The UE 200 may include sensors 213, the sensors 213 may include, for example, one or more of various types of sensors, such as one or more inertial sensors, one or more magnetometers, one or more environmental sensors, one or more optical sensors, one or more weight sensors, and/or one or more Radio Frequency (RF) sensors, among others. An Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) may include, for example, one or more accelerometers (e.g., collectively responsive to accelerations in three dimensions of the UE 200) and/or one or more gyroscopes (e.g., three-dimensional gyroscopes). The sensors 213 may include one or more magnetometers (e.g., three-dimensional magnetometers) for determining bearing (e.g., relative to magnetic and/or north), which may be used for any of a variety of purposes, e.g., to support one or more compass applications. The environmental sensors may include, for example, one or more temperature sensors, one or more barometric pressure sensors, one or more ambient light sensors, one or more camera imagers, and/or one or more microphones, among others. The sensors 213 may generate analog and/or digital signal indications that may be stored in the memory 211 and processed by the DSP 231 and/or the processor 230 to support one or more applications, such as, for example, applications related to positioning and/or navigation operations.
The sensors 213 may be used for relative position measurement, relative position determination, motion determination, and the like. The information detected by the sensor 213 may be used for motion detection, relative displacement, dead reckoning, sensor-based position determination, and/or sensor-assisted position determination. The sensors 213 may be used to determine whether the UE 200 is stationary (stationary) or mobile and/or whether to report certain useful information about the mobility of the UE 200 to the LMF 120. For example, based on information obtained/measured by the sensors, the UE 200 may notify/report to the LMF 120 that the UE 200 has detected movement or that the UE 200 has moved, as well as report relative displacement/distance (e.g., via dead reckoning or sensor-based or sensor-assisted position determination enabled by the sensors 213). In another example, for relative positioning information, the sensor/IMU may be used to determine an angle and/or orientation, etc., of another device relative to the UE 200.
The IMU may be configured to provide measurements regarding the direction and/or speed of motion of the UE 200, which may be used for relative position determination. For example, one or more accelerometers and/or one or more gyroscopes of the IMU may detect linear acceleration and rotational velocity, respectively, of the UE 200. The linear acceleration and rotational velocity measurements of the UE 200 may be integrated over time to determine the instantaneous direction of motion and displacement of the UE 200. The instantaneous motion direction and displacement may be integrated to track the location of the UE 200. For example, the reference position of the UE 200 may be determined at a time, e.g., using the SPS receiver 217 (and/or by some other means), and measurements made from accelerometers and gyroscopes after that time may be used for dead reckoning to determine the current position of the UE 200 based on the movement (direction and distance) of the UE 200 relative to the reference position.
The magnetometers may determine magnetic field strengths in different directions, which may be used to determine a position of the UE 200. For example, the orientation may be used to provide a digital compass for the UE 200. The magnetometer may be a two-dimensional magnetometer configured to detect and provide an indication of magnetic field strength in two orthogonal dimensions. Alternatively, the magnetometer may be a three-dimensional magnetometer configured to detect and provide indications of magnetic field strength in three orthogonal dimensions. The magnetometer may provide a means for sensing a magnetic field and providing an indication of the magnetic field, for example, to the processor 210.
The transceiver 215 may include a wireless transceiver 240 and a wired transceiver 250, the wireless transceiver 240 and the wired transceiver 250 configured to communicate with other devices over a wireless connection and a wired connection, respectively. For example, the wireless transceiver 240 may include a wireless transmitter 242 and a wireless receiver 244 coupled to one or more antennas 246 for transmitting (e.g., on one or more uplink channels and/or one or more sidelink channels) and/or receiving (e.g., on one or more downlink channels and/or one or more sidelink channels) wireless signals 248 and converting signals from wireless signals 248 to wired (e.g., electrical and/or optical) signals and from wired (e.g., electrical and/or optical) signals to wireless signals 248. Thus, the wireless transmitter 242 may include multiple transmitters, which may be discrete components or combined/integrated components, and/or the wireless receiver 244 may include multiple receivers, which may be discrete components or combined/integrated components. The wireless transceiver 240 may be configured to transmit signals (e.g., with the TRP and/or one or more other devices) according to various Radio Access Technologies (RATs), such as: 5G New Radio (NR), GSM (Global System for Mobile), UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), AMPS (advanced Mobile Phone System), CDMA (code division multiple Access), WCDMA (wideband CDMA), LTE (Long term evolution), LTE direct (LTE-D), 3GPP LTE-V2X (PC5), IEEE 802.11 (including IEEE 802.11p), WiFi direct (WiFi-D), WiFi,
Figure BDA0003777899050000121
Zigbee and the like. The new radio may use mm-wave frequencies and/or frequencies below 6 GHz. Is provided withThe wire transceiver 250 may include a wire transmitter 252 and a wire receiver 254 configured for wired communication, for example, with the network 135. The wired transmitter 252 may include multiple transmitters, which may be discrete components or combined/integrated components, and/or the wired receiver 254 may include multiple receivers, which may be discrete components or combined/integrated components. The wired transceiver 250 may be configured for optical and/or electrical communication, for example. The transceiver 215 may be communicatively coupled to the transceiver interface 214, for example, by optical and/or electrical connections. The transceiver interface 214 may be at least partially integrated with the transceiver 215.
The user interface 216 may include one or more of a number of devices, such as, for example, a speaker, a microphone, a display device, a vibration device, a keyboard, a touch screen, and so forth. The user interface 216 may include more than one of any of these devices. The user interface 216 may be configured to enable a user to interact with one or more applications hosted by the UE 200. For example, the user interface 216 may store indications of analog and/or digital signals in the memory 211 for processing by the DSP 231 and/or the general purpose processor 230 in response to actions from a user. Similarly, applications hosted on the UE 200 may store indications of analog and/or digital signals in the memory 211 to present output signals to a user. The user interface 216 may include audio input/output (I/O) devices including, for example, a speaker, a microphone, digital-to-analog circuitry, analog-to-digital circuitry, an amplifier, and/or gain control circuitry (including more than one of these devices). Other configurations of audio I/O devices may be used. Additionally or alternatively, the user interface 216 may include one or more touch sensors responsive to touch and/or pressure, for example, on a keyboard and/or touch screen of the user interface 216.
SPS receiver 217, e.g., a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, may be capable of receiving and acquiring SPS signals 260 via SPS antenna 262. The antenna 262 is configured to convert the wireless signal 260 to a wired signal (e.g., an electrical signal or an optical signal) and may be integrated with the antenna 246. SPS receiver 217 may be configured to process, in whole or in part, acquired SPS signals 260 to estimate a position of UE 200. For example, SPS receiver 217 may be configured to determine a location of UE 200 through trilateration using SPS signals 260. General purpose processor 230, memory 211, DSP 231, and/or one or more special purpose processors (not shown) may be utilized to process, in whole or in part, acquired SPS signals and/or calculate an estimated position of UE 200 in conjunction with SPS receiver 217. Memory 211 may store indications (e.g., measurements) of SPS signals 260 and/or other signals used to perform positioning operations (e.g., signals acquired from wireless transceiver 240). The general purpose processor 230, DSP 231, and/or one or more special purpose processors and/or memory 211 may provide or support a location engine for processing measurements to estimate a location of the UE 200.
The UE 200 may include a camera 218 for capturing still or moving images. The camera 218 may include, for example, an imaging sensor (e.g., a charge coupled device or CMOS imager), a lens, analog-to-digital circuitry, a frame buffer, and so forth. Additional processing, conditioning, encoding, and/or compression of the signals representing the captured images may be performed by the general purpose processor 230 and/or the DSP 231. Additionally or alternatively, video processor 233 may perform conditioning, encoding, compression, and/or manipulation of signals representing captured images. The video processor 233 may decode/decompress the stored image data for presentation on a display device (not shown), such as the user interface 216.
The Positioning Device (PD)219 may be configured to determine a location of the UE 200, a motion of the UE 200, and/or a relative location and/or time of the UE 200. For example, PD 219 may be in communication with SPS receiver 217 and/or include some or all of SPS receiver 217. Although the PD 219 may work in conjunction with the processor 210 and memory 211 to perform at least a portion of one or more positioning methods, as appropriate, the description herein may refer only to the PD 219 being configured to perform according to a positioning method or the PD 219 performing according to a positioning method. PD 219 may also or alternatively be configured to determine a location of UE 200 using terrestrial-based signals (e.g., at least some of signals 248) for trilateration, for aiding in obtaining and using SPS signals 260, or both. The PD 219 may be configured to determine the location of the UE 200 using one or more other techniques, e.g., relying on the UE's self-reported location (e.g., part of the UE's location beacon), and may determine the location of the UE 200 using a combination of techniques, e.g., SPS and terrestrial positioning signals. The PD 219 may include one or more of sensors 213 (e.g., gyroscopes, accelerometers, magnetometers, etc.) that may sense a position and/or motion of the UE 200 and provide an indication thereof, which the processor 210 (e.g., processor 230 and/or DSP 231) may be configured to use to determine a motion (e.g., velocity vector and/or acceleration vector) of the UE 200. The PD 219 may be configured to provide an indication of uncertainty and/or error of the determined position and/or motion. The functionality of the PD 219 may be provided in various manners and/or configurations, e.g., by the general/application processor 230, the transceiver 215, the SPS receiver 262, and/or another component of the UE 200, and may be provided by hardware, software, firmware, or various combinations thereof.
Referring also to fig. 3, an example of a TRP 300 of a BS 110a, 110b, 114 includes a computing platform including a processor 310, a memory 311 including Software (SW)312, and a transceiver 315. Processor 310, memory 311, and transceiver 315 may be communicatively coupled to each other by a bus 320 (which may be configured, for example, for optical and/or electrical communication). One or more of the illustrated devices (e.g., wireless interfaces) may be omitted from TRP 300. Processor 310 may include one or more intelligent hardware devices, such as a Central Processing Unit (CPU), microcontroller, Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), and the like. The processor 310 may include a plurality of processors (e.g., including a general/application processor, DSP, modem processor, video processor, and/or sensor processor as shown in fig. 2). The memory 311 is a non-transitory storage medium that may include Random Access Memory (RAM), flash memory, optical disk memory, and/or Read Only Memory (ROM), among others. The memory 311 stores software 312, which software 312 may be processor-readable, processor-executable software code containing instructions configured to, when executed, cause the processor 310 to perform various functions described herein. Alternatively, the software 312 may not be directly executable by the processor 310, but may be configured to cause the processor 310 (e.g., when compiled and executed) to perform functions. The description may refer only to the processor 310 performing the function, but this includes other implementations, such as the processor 310 executing software and/or firmware. The description may simply refer to one or more of the processors included in processor 310 performing the functions as processor 310 performing the functions. The description may refer to one or more appropriate components of TRP 300 (and thus one of BSs 110a, 110b, 114) performing the function as simply TRP 300 performing the function. The processor 310 may include memory with stored instructions in addition to and/or in place of the memory 311. The functionality of processor 310 is discussed more fully below.
The transceiver 315 may include a wireless transceiver 340 and/or a wired transceiver 350, the wireless transceiver 340 and/or the wired transceiver 350 configured to communicate with other devices over a wireless connection and a wired connection, respectively. For example, the wireless transceiver 340 may include a transmitter 342 and a receiver 344 coupled to one or more antennas 346 for transmitting (e.g., on one or more uplink channels and/or one or more downlink channels) and/or receiving (e.g., on one or more downlink channels and/or one or more downlink channels) wireless signals 348 and converting signals from wireless signals 348 to wired (e.g., electrical and/or optical) signals and from wired (e.g., electrical and/or optical) signals to wireless signals 348. Thus, the transmitter 342 may include multiple transmitters, which may be discrete components or combined/integrated components, and/or the receiver 344 may include multiple receivers, which may be discrete components or combined/integrated components. The wireless transceiver 340 may be configured to transmit signals (e.g., with the UE 200, one or more other UEs, and/or one or more other devices) according to various Radio Access Technologies (RATs), such as: 5G New Radio (NR), GSM (Global System for Mobile), UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), AMPS (advanced Mobile Phone System), CDMA (code division multiple Access), WCDMA (wideband CDMA), LTE (Long term evolution), LTE direct (LTE-D), 3GPP LTE-V2X (PC5), IEEE 802.11 (including IEEE 802.11p), WiFi direct (WiFi-D), and,
Figure BDA0003777899050000131
Zigbee and the like. The wired transceiver 350 may include a wired transmitter 352 and a wired receiver 354 configured for wired communication, e.g., a network interface that may be utilized to communicate with the network 135 to send and receive communications to and from, for example, the LMF 120 and/or one or more other network entities. Transmitter 352 may include multiple transmitters, which may be discrete components or combined/integrated components, and/or receiver 354 may include multiple receivers, which may be discrete components or combined/integrated components. The wired transceiver 350 may be configured for optical and/or electrical communication, for example.
The configuration of TRP 300 shown in fig. 3 is illustrative of, and not limiting of, the invention comprising the claims, and other configurations may be used. For example, the description herein discusses TRP 300 being configured to perform several functions or TRP 300 performing several functions, but one or more of these functions may be performed by LMF 120 and/or UE 200 (i.e., LMF 120 and/or UE 200 may be configured to perform one or more of these functions).
Referring also to fig. 4, a server 400, which is an example of LMF 120, includes a computing platform including a processor 410, a memory 411 including Software (SW)412, and a transceiver 415. Processor 410, memory 411, and transceiver 415 may be communicatively coupled to each other by a bus 420 (which may be configured, for example, for optical and/or electrical communication). One or more of the illustrated devices (e.g., wireless interfaces) may be omitted from the server 400. Processor 410 may include one or more intelligent hardware devices, such as a Central Processing Unit (CPU), microcontroller, Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), and the like. The processor 410 may include multiple processors (e.g., including a general/application processor, a DSP, a modem processor, a video processor, and/or a sensor processor as shown in fig. 2). Memory 411 is a non-transitory storage medium that may include Random Access Memory (RAM), flash memory, optical disk memory, and/or Read Only Memory (ROM), among others. The memory 411 stores software 412, which software 412 may be processor-readable, processor-executable software code containing instructions configured to, when executed, cause the processor 410 to perform various functions described herein. Alternatively, the software 412 may not be directly executable by the processor 410, but may be configured to cause the processor 410 (e.g., when compiled and executed) to perform functions. The description may refer only to the processor 410 performing the functions, but this includes other implementations, such as the processor 410 executing software and/or firmware. This description may simply refer to one or more of the processors included in the processor 410 performing functions as the processor 410 performing functions. This description may refer to one or more suitable components of server 400 performing the function as simply server 400 performing the function. Processor 410 may include memory with stored instructions in addition to memory 411 and/or in place of memory 411. The functionality of processor 410 is discussed more fully below.
The transceiver 415 can include a wireless transceiver 440 and/or a wired transceiver 450, the wireless transceiver 440 and/or the wired transceiver 450 configured to communicate with other devices over a wireless connection and a wired connection, respectively. For example, the wireless transceiver 440 may include a transmitter 442 and a receiver 444 coupled to one or more antennas 446 for transmitting (e.g., on one or more downlink channels) and/or receiving (e.g., on one or more uplink channels) wireless signals 448 and converting signals from the wireless signals 448 to wired (e.g., electrical and/or optical) signals and from the wired (e.g., electrical and/or optical) signals to the wireless signals 448. Thus, the transmitter 442 may include multiple transmitters, which may be discrete components or combined/integrated components, and/or the receiver 444 may include multiple receivers, which may be discrete components or combined/integrated components. The wireless transceiver 440 may be configured to transmit signals (e.g., with the UE 200, one or more other UEs, and/or one or more other devices) according to various Radio Access Technologies (RATs), such as: 5G New Radio (NR), GSM (Global System for Mobile), UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), AMPS (advanced Mobile Phone System), CDMA (code division multiple Access), WCDMA (wideband CDMA), LTE (Long term evolution), LTE direct (LTE-D), 3GPP LTE-V2X (PC5), IEEE 802.11 (including IEEE 802.11) p), WiFi direct (WiFi-D),
Figure BDA0003777899050000141
Zigbee and the like. Wired transceiver 450 may include a wired transmitter 452 and a wired receiver 454 configured for wired communication, e.g., a network interface that may be utilized to communicate with network 135 to send and receive communications to and from TRP 300 and/or one or more other entities, for example. The transmitter 452 may include multiple transmitters, which may be discrete components or combined/integrated components, and/or the receiver 454 may include multiple receivers, which may be discrete components or combined/integrated components. The wired transceiver 450 may be configured for optical and/or electrical communication, for example.
The configuration of server 400 shown in fig. 4 is an example, not a limitation, of the invention including the claims, and other configurations may be used. For example, the wireless transceiver 440 may be omitted. Additionally or alternatively, the description herein discusses the server 400 being configured to perform several functions or the server 400 performing several functions, but one or more of these functions may be performed by the TRP 300 and/or the UE 200 (i.e., the TRP 300 and/or the UE 200 may be configured to perform one or more of these functions).
Location technology
For terrestrial positioning of UEs in a cellular network, techniques such as Advanced Forward Link Trilateration (AFLT) and observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) typically operate in a "UE-assisted" mode in which the UE measures reference signals (e.g., PRS, CRS, etc.) transmitted by base stations and then provides them to a location server. The location server then calculates the position of the UE based on the measurements and the known locations of the base stations. Because these techniques use a location server to compute the position of the UE, rather than the UE itself, these positioning techniques are not used often in applications such as automotive or cell phone navigation (which instead typically relies on satellite-based positioning).
The UE may use a Satellite Positioning System (SPS) (global navigation satellite system (GNSS)) for high precision positioning using either Precise Point Positioning (PPP) or Real Time Kinematic (RTK) techniques. These techniques use assistance data, such as measurements from ground-based stations. LTE release 15 allows data to be encrypted so that only UEs subscribed to the service can read the information. Such assistance data varies over time. Thus, a UE subscribing to the service may not easily "break encryption" for other UEs by passing data to other UEs that have not paid the subscription fee. Repeated transfers will be required each time the assistance data changes.
In UE-assisted location, the UE sends measurements (e.g., TDOA, angle of incidence (AoA), etc.) to a location server (e.g., LMF/eSMLC). The location server has a base station almanac (almanac) (BSA) that contains multiple "entries" or "records," one for each cell, where each record contains the geographic cell location, but may also include other data. Identifiers of "records" of the plurality of "records" in the BSA may be referenced. The BSA and measurements from the UE may be used to calculate the location of the UE.
In conventional UE-based positioning, the UE computes its own positioning, thus avoiding sending measurements to the network (e.g., location server), which in turn improves latency and scalability. The UE records information (e.g., the location of the gNB (more broadly, base station)) using the relevant BSA from the network. The BSA information may be encrypted. However, since the BSA information varies much less frequently than PPP or RTK assistance data, such as described above, it may be easier to make BSA information (as compared to PPP or RTK information) available to UEs that do not subscribe to and pay for decryption keys. The transmission of the reference signal by the gNB makes the BSA information potentially accessible for crowd-sourcing (crowd-sourcing) or scanning along the street (war-driving), thereby substantially enabling BSA information to be generated based on live and/or over-range observations.
The location technique may be characterized and/or evaluated based on one or more criteria, such as location determination accuracy and/or latency. The time delay is the time elapsed between an event triggering the determination of location related data and the availability of that data at a location system interface (e.g., an interface of the LMF 120). The latency of availability of location related data at the time of initialization of the location system is referred to as the Time To First Fix (TTFF) and is greater than the latency after TTFF. The inverse of the time elapsed between the availability of two consecutive positioning related data is called the update rate, i.e. the rate at which the positioning related data is generated after the first fix. The delay may depend on, for example, the processing capabilities of the UE. For example, the UE may report the UE's processing capability with respect to which the UE may process every T amount of time (e.g., T ms), assuming 272PRB (physical resource block) allocations, as the duration of a DL PRS symbol in time units (e.g., milliseconds). Other examples of capabilities that may affect latency are the number of TRPs that a UE can handle PRS from, the number of PRSs that a UE can handle, and the bandwidth of the UE.
One or more of a number of different positioning technologies (also referred to as positioning methods) may be used to determine the position of an entity, such as one of the UEs 105, 106. For example, known location determination techniques include RTT, multiple RTT, OTDOA (also known as TDOA and including UL-TDOA and DL-TDOA), enhanced cell identification (E-CID), DL-AoD, UL-AoA, and the like. RTT uses the time a signal travels from one entity to another and back to determine the distance between two entities. The distance plus the known location of the first entity and the angle (e.g., azimuth) between the two entities may be used to determine the location of the second entity. In multiple RTTs (also referred to as multi-cell RTTs), multiple distances from one entity (e.g., a UE) to other entities (e.g., a TRP) and known locations of the other entities may be used to determine the location of one entity. In TDOA techniques, the travel time differences between one entity and other entities can be used to determine relative distances to the other entities, and those relative distances, in combination with the known locations of the other entities, can be used to determine the location of one entity. The angle of incidence and/or the angle of emission may be used to assist in determining the location of the entity. For example, the angle of incidence or emission of a signal in combination with the distance between devices (determined using the signal (e.g., travel time of the signal, received power of the signal, etc.)) and the known location of one of the devices may be used to determine the location of the other device. The angle of incidence or emission may be an azimuth angle with respect to a reference direction, such as due north. The angle of incidence or emission may be relative to the zenith angle directly upward from the entity (i.e., radially outward from the center of the earth). The E-CID uses the identity of the serving cell, the timing advance (i.e., the difference between the time of reception and the time of transmission at the UE), the estimated timing and power of the detected neighboring cell signals, and possibly the angle of incidence (e.g., the angle of incidence of the signal from the base station at the UE, or vice versa) to determine the location of the UE. In TDOA, the time difference of arrival of signals from different sources at the receiving device, along with the known location of the source and the known offset in transmission time from the source, is used to determine the location of the receiving device.
In network-centric RTT estimation, a serving base station directs a UE to scan/receive RTT measurement signals (e.g., PRSs) on a serving cell of two or more neighboring base stations (and typically the serving base station, since at least three base stations are required). One or more base stations transmit RTT measurement signals on low reuse resources (e.g., resources used by the base stations to transmit system information) allocated by a network (e.g., a location server such as LMF 120). The UE records the time of arrival (also referred to as the receive time, the time of reception, or the time of arrival (ToA)) of each RTT measurement signal relative to the current downlink timing of the UE (e.g., derived by the UE from DL signals received from its serving base station), and sends a common or individual RTT response message (e.g., an SRS (sounding reference signal) for positioning, i.e., UL-PRS) to one or more base stations (e.g., when directed by its serving base station), and may include the time difference T between the ToA of the RTT measurement signal and the transmission time of the RTT response message in the payload of each RTT response message Rx→Tx (i.e., UE T) Rx-Tx Or UE Rx-Tx ). The RTT response message will include a reference signal from which the base station can infer the ToA of the RTT response. By taking the difference T between the transmission time of the RTT measurement signal from the base station and the ToA of the RTT response at the base station Tx→Rx Time difference T reported by UE Rx→Tx In comparison, the base station may infer the propagation time between the base station and the UE, from which the base station may determine the distance between the UE and the base station by assuming the speed of light during the propagation timeAnd (5) separating.
UE-centric RTT estimation is similar to network-based approaches, except that the UE sends uplink RTT measurement signals (e.g., when directed by a serving base station) that are received by multiple base stations in the vicinity of the UE. Each involved base station responds with a downlink RTT response message, which may include the time difference between the ToA of the RTT measurement signal at the base station and the transmission time of the RTT response message from the base station in the RTT response message payload.
For both network-centric and UE-centric processes, one party (the network or the UE) performing RTT calculations typically (but not always) sends a first message or signal (e.g., an RTT measurement signal), while the other party responds with one or more RTT response messages or signals, which may include a difference between the ToA of the first message or signal and the transmission time of the RTT response message or signal.
Multiple RTT techniques may be used to determine position location. For example, a first entity (e.g., a UE) may transmit one or more signals (e.g., unicast, multicast, or broadcast from a base station), and a plurality of second entities (e.g., other TSPs such as base stations and/or UEs) may receive signals from the first entity and respond to the received signals. The first entity receives responses from a plurality of second entities. The first entity (or another entity such as an LMF) may use the response from the second entity to determine a distance to the second entity, and may use the plurality of distances and the known location of the second entity to determine the location of the first entity via trilateration.
In some cases, the additional information may be obtained in the form of an angle of incidence (AoA) or angle of emission (AoD) defining a straight direction (e.g., which may be in a horizontal plane or three dimensions) or a possible directional distance (e.g., from the location of the base station for the UE). The intersection of the two directions may provide another estimate of the UE's position.
For positioning techniques (e.g., TDOA and RTT) using PRS (positioning reference signal) signals, PRS signals transmitted by multiple TRPs are measured, and the time of arrival of the signals, the known transmission time, and the known location of the TRP are used to determine the distance from the UE to the TRP. For example, RSTD (reference signal time difference) may be determined for PRS signals received from multiple TRPs, and used in TDOA techniques to determine the location (position) of a UE. The positioning reference signals may be referred to as PRS or PRS signals. PRS signals are typically transmitted using the same power, and PRS signals having the same signal characteristics (e.g., the same frequency shift) may interfere with each other such that PRS signals from more distant TRPs may be swamped by PRS signals from more recent TRPs such that signals from more distant TRPs may not be detected. PRS muting may be used to help reduce interference by muting some PRS signals (e.g., reducing the power of PRS signals to zero, and thus not transmitting PRS signals). In this way, the UE may more easily detect a weaker (at the UE) PRS signal without the stronger PRS signal interfering with the weaker PRS signal.
Positioning Reference Signals (PRS) include downlink PRS (dl PRS) and uplink PRS (ul PRS), which may be referred to as SRS for positioning (sounding reference signal). The PRS may include PRS resources or a set of PRS resources of a frequency layer. The DL PRS positioning frequency layer (or simply frequency layer) is a set of DL PRS resources from one or more TRPs with common parameters configured by higher layer parameters DL-PRS-positioning frequency layer, DL-PRS-resources set, and DL-PRS-resources. Each frequency layer has DL PRS subcarrier spacing (SCS) for the set of DL PRS resources and the DL PRS resources in that frequency layer. Each frequency layer has a DL PRS Cyclic Prefix (CP) for the set of DL PRS resources and the DL PRS resources in that frequency layer. Furthermore, the DL PRS point a parameter defines the frequency of the reference resource block (and the lowest subcarrier of the resource block), where DL PRS resources belonging to the same set of DL PRS resources have the same point a and all sets of DL PRS resources belonging to the same frequency layer have the same point a. The frequency layers also have the same DL PRS bandwidth, the same starting PRB (and center frequency), and the same comb size value.
The TRP may be configured, e.g., by instructions received from a server and/or by software in the TRP, to transmit DL PRS per schedule. According to the schedule, the TRP may transmit DL PRS intermittently (e.g., periodically at a consistent interval from an initial transmission). The TRP may be configured to transmit one or more sets of PRS resources. The set of resources is a set of PRS resources that span one TRP, where the resources have the same periodicity, common muting pattern configuration (if any), and the same repetition factor across a timeslot. Each of the set of PRS resources comprises a plurality of PRS resources, wherein each PRS resource comprises a plurality of Resource Elements (REs) in a plurality of Resource Blocks (RBs) that may be within N (one or more) consecutive symbols within a slot. An RB is a set of REs spanning a number of one or more consecutive symbols in the time domain and a number (12 for a 5G RB) of consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain. Each PRS resource is configured with a RE offset, a slot offset, a symbol offset within the slot, and a number of consecutive symbols that the PRS resource may occupy within the slot. The RE offset defines a starting RE offset for a first symbol within a DL PRS resource in frequency. The relative RE offsets of the remaining symbols within the DL PRS resources are defined based on the initial offset. The slot offset is the starting slot of the DL PRS resource offset relative to the corresponding resource set slot. The symbol offset determines the starting symbol of the DL PRS resource within the starting slot. The transmitted REs may repeat across slots, where each transmission is referred to as a repetition, such that there may be multiple repetitions in the PRS resource. DL PRS resources in the set of DL PRS resources are associated with the same TRP and each DL PRS resource has a DL PRS resource ID. The DL PRS resource IDs in the set of DL PRS resources are associated with a single beam transmitted from a single TRP (although the TRP may transmit one or more beams).
PRS resources may also be defined by quasi-co-located and starting PRB parameters. The quasi-co-location (QCL) parameters may define any quasi-co-location information of DL PRS resources with other reference signals. DL PRS may be configured to be aligned with DL PRS or SS/PBCH (synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel) blocks QCL type D from a serving cell or a non-serving cell. DL PRS may be configured to correlate with SS/PBCH blocks QCL type C from either a serving cell or a non-serving cell. The starting PRB parameter defines a starting PRB index of the DL PRS resource with respect to reference point a. The starting PRB index has a granularity of one PRB and may have a minimum value of 0 and a maximum value of 2176 PRBs.
A set of PRS resources is a set of PRS resources having the same periodicity, the same muting pattern configuration (if any), and the same repetition factor across a slot. Each time a full repetition of all PRS resources of a set of PRS resources is configured to be transmitted is referred to as an "instance". Thus, an "instance" of a set of PRS resources is a specified number of repetitions for each PRS resource and a specified number of PRS resources within the set of PRS resources such that the instance is completed once the specified number of repetitions is transmitted for each of the specified number of PRS resources. Instances may also be referred to as "opportunities. A DL PRS configuration including a DL PRS transmission schedule may be provided to a UE to facilitate (or even enable) the UE to measure DL PRS.
Multiple frequency layers of a PRS may be aggregated to provide an effective bandwidth greater than any bandwidth of the individual layers. Multiple frequency layers of component carriers, which may be contiguous and/or separated, satisfying criteria such as quasi-co-location (QCL) and having the same antenna ports, may be joined to provide a larger effective PRS bandwidth (for DL PRS and UL PRS) to increase time of arrival measurement accuracy. As being QCL, the different frequency layers behave similarly, such that the joining of PRSs results in a larger effective bandwidth. The larger effective bandwidth (which may be referred to as the bandwidth of the aggregated PRS or the frequency bandwidth of the aggregated PRS) provides better time domain resolution (e.g., the time domain resolution of TDOA). The aggregated PRS includes a set of PRS resources, and each PRS resource of the aggregated PRS may be referred to as a PRS component, and each PRS component may be transmitted on a different component carrier, band, or frequency layer, or on a different portion of the same band.
RTT positioning is an active positioning technique because RTT uses positioning signals sent by the TRP to the UE and positioning signals sent by the UE (participating in RTT positioning) to the TRP. The TRP may transmit DL PRS signals received by the UE, and the UE may transmit SRS (sounding reference signal) signals received by a plurality of TRPs. The sounding reference signal may be referred to as an SRS or SRS signal. In 5G multi-RTT, coordinated positioning may be used in case the UE transmits a single UL-SRS for positioning received by multiple TRPs instead of transmitting separate UL-SRS for positioning for each TRP. A TRP participating in multiple RTTs will typically search for UEs currently residing on the TRP (served UEs, where the TRP is the serving TRP) and also for UEs residing on neighboring TRPs (neighbor UEs). The neighbor TRPs may be TRPs of a single BTS (e.g., gNB), or may be TRPs of one BTS and TRPs of separate BTSs. For RTT positioning (including multi-RTT positioning), DL-PRS signals and UL-SRS of positioning signals in PRS/SRS of positioning signal pairs used to determine RTT (and thus the distance between the UE and the TRP) may occur close in time to each other, such that errors due to UE motion and/or UE clock drift and/or TRP clock drift are within acceptable limits. For example, signals in the PRS/SRS used for a positioning signal pair may be transmitted from the TRP and the UE, respectively, within about 10ms of each other. In case that the SRS for positioning is transmitted by the UE, and in case that the PRS for positioning and the SRS are transmitted close to each other in time, it has been found that: may cause Radio Frequency (RF) signal congestion (which may lead to excessive noise, etc.), particularly if many UEs attempt to locate concurrently and/or may cause computational congestion where concurrent measurements of TRPs of multiple UEs are attempted.
RTT positioning may be UE-based or UE-assisted. In UE-based RTT, UE 200 determines RTT and corresponding distances to each of TRPs 300 and location of UE 200 based on the distance to TRP 300 and the known location of TRP 300. In UE-assisted RTT, UE 200 measures a positioning signal and provides measurement information to TRP 300, and TRP 300 determines RTT and distance. The TRP 300 provides distances to a location server (e.g., server 400), and the server determines the location of the UE 200 based on the distances to different TRPs 300, for example. The RTT and/or distance may be determined by the TRP 300 receiving a signal from the UE 200, by the TRP 300 in combination with one or more other devices (e.g., one or more other TRPs 300 and/or server 400), or by one or more devices other than the TRP 300 receiving a signal from the UE 200.
Various positioning techniques are supported in the 5G NR. The NR local positioning methods supported in 5G NR include a DL-only positioning method, an UL-only positioning method, and a DL + UL positioning method. The downlink-based positioning methods include DL-TDOA and DL-AoD. The uplink-based positioning method includes UL-TDOA and UL-AoA. The combined DL + UL-based positioning method includes RTT with one base station and RTT with multiple base stations (multiple RTT).
The location estimate (e.g., for the UE) may be referenced by other names, such as location estimate (location estimate), location (location), position (location), location fix (location fix), fix (fix). The location estimate may be geodetic and include coordinates (e.g., latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude), or may be civic and include a street address, a postal address, or some other verbal description of the location. A position estimate may also be defined relative to some other known location or in absolute terms (e.g., using latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude). The location estimate may include an expected error or uncertainty (e.g., by including a region or volume within which the location is expected to be included with some specified or default confidence level).
Downlink PRS processing
Due to potential complexity (particularly with respect to LTE) and the number of positioning signals, restrictions may be imposed on positioning signals to limit PRS processing (including data buffering). For example, for NR, each TRP may have multiple beams, and thus multiple PRS resources. For example, each TRP may configure up to 64 beams and thus up to 64 PRS resources for FR2 (frequency range 2, which is a mm-wave band from 24.25GHz to 52.6 GHz), and up to 8 PRS resources for FR1 (frequency range 1 from 410MHz to 7.125 GHz). The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) size for NR may be 4K, which is twice the FFT size for LTE. Further, there may be up to 12 symbols per slot, with a repetition of 32 slots (where each slot may be 8 times smaller than an LTE subframe). Therefore, NR PRS may be 1000 times more complex than LTE. Thus, one or more limits may be imposed on individual UE positioning processing capabilities to constrain complexity and facilitate PRS processing for positioning (e.g., reduce processing, including reduce data buffering) (e.g., the positioning signals are processed in accordance with one or more positioning methods for determining a location of the UE to determine positioning information (e.g., range (e.g., pseudorange), one or more PRS measurements, UE location, etc.). The positioning processing capabilities of the UE that may be specified include a maximum number of frequency layers (e.g., one or four), a maximum number of TRPs per frequency layer, a maximum number of PRS resource sets per TRP per frequency layer, a maximum number of PRS resources per PRS resource set, a maximum number of DL PRS resources per UE, a maximum number of TRPs per all frequency layers of the UE, a maximum number of PRS resources per frequency layer, and the like.
To facilitate PRS processing, e.g., to free up potential processing power for processing PRS, measurement gaps may be scheduled for UEs (although only one measurement gap may be scheduled at a time). For example, the UE may request a measurement gap configuration so that the UE may measure DL PRS outside of the active DL BWP (bandwidth part). The server (e.g., LMF) may schedule one or more measurement gaps, e.g., in response to a request from a UE or independent of (e.g., absent from) any such request. The measurement gap that may be requested by the UE is the time during which the UE will not receive data or control information and therefore does not need to perform data or control processing. Thus, the UE may dedicate processing capabilities to data and/or control processing to positioning processing of the PRS to determine positioning information. The positioning information may be a position (location) of the UE or other information that may be used to determine the position of the UE (e.g., one or more distances and/or one or more PRS measurements (e.g., RSTD, RSRP, Rx-Tx)). With the measurement gap, the UE may measure DL PRS outside of the active DL BWP with a different numerical scheme than that (numerology) of the active DL BWP, where the numerical scheme is a configuration of waveform parameters subcarrier spacing and cyclic prefix size. Without measurement gaps, the UE will measure DL PRS within the active DL BWP using the same numerical scheme as the active BWP. Furthermore, it would not be desirable for the UE to process DL PRS in the same OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) symbol where other DL signals and channels are transmitted to the UE, or on any symbol indicated as uplink by the serving TRP.
Method for positioning each positioning frequency band
Referring to fig. 5, with further reference to fig. 1-4, UE 500 includes a processor 510, an interface 520, and a memory 530 communicatively coupled to each other by a bus 540. UE 500 may include the components shown in fig. 5, as well as one or more other components (such as any of the components shown in fig. 2), such that UE 200 may be an example of UE 500. For example, processor 510 may include one or more of the components of processor 210. The interface 520 may include one or more of the components of the transceiver 215, such as the wireless transmitter 242 and the antenna 246, or the wireless receiver 244 and the antenna 246, or the wireless transmitter 242, the wireless receiver 244, and the antenna 246. Additionally or alternatively, the interface 520 may include a wired transmitter 252 and/or a wired receiver 254. Memory 530 may be configured similar to memory 211, e.g., including software having processor-readable instructions configured to cause processor 510 to perform functions.
The description herein may refer only to processor 510 performing functions, but this includes other implementations, such as processor 510 executing software (stored in memory 530) and/or firmware. The description herein may refer to one or more suitable components of UE 500 (e.g., processor 510 and memory 530) performing functions as simply UE 500 performing functions. The processor 550, possibly in conjunction with the memory 530, includes a positioning signal processing unit 550 and a positioning method (and capability) reporting unit 560. The positioning signal processing unit 550 is configured to process positioning signals according to supported positioning methods to produce positioning information (e.g., positioning, distance, PRS measurements, etc.). The positioning method (and capability) reporting unit 560 is configured to obtain (e.g. generate/generate and/or select) supported positioning methods and, optionally, corresponding positioning processing capabilities, and to send indications of these to an appropriate destination, such as a network entity (such as TRP 300 or server 400), via interface 520. The description may refer to the processor 510 or the UE 500 performing functions performed by the unit 550 or the unit 560.
The UE 500 may be configured to support multiple positioning methods, including supporting simultaneous processing of multiple positioning methods. Simultaneous processing of multiple positioning methods (e.g., simultaneous processing of signals of two or more of the AoD, AoA, TDOA, or multi-RTT methods) involves processing of one or more signals using two or more positioning methods in parallel (using respective overall processing of the signals using two methods that overlap in time, regardless of whether respective operations of the different methods were performed simultaneously or not). For example, processor 510 (and memory 530, as appropriate) may process positioning signals (e.g., PRSs) according to two or more positioning methods that overlap in time, such as the positioning methods discussed herein, to determine positioning information. By processing the positioning signals according to a positioning method, the processor 510 may or may not determine the position of the UE 500, e.g., determine information that may be used to determine the position, rather than the position itself. For example, the processor 510 (which may include the PD 219) may process the one or more PRSs to determine one or more distances to one or more sources of positioning signals and/or to determine one or more PRS measurements. The UE 500 may support simultaneous processing of multiple positioning methods because, for example, the UE 500 may have multiple positioning methods triggered in a single positioning session, the UE 500 may perform (at least respective portions of) the multiple positioning methods simultaneously (e.g., during the same time window of operations with different methods performed simultaneously (e.g., in parallel) and/or at different times (e.g., interleaved)), and/or the UE 500 may report results of (at least respective portions of) the multiple positioning methods jointly (e.g., simultaneously, in a single message). For example, the UE 500 may report one or more RSTD measurements of a TDOA positioning method and/or one or more RSRP (reference signal received power) measurements of an AoD positioning method.
Referring to fig. 6, with further reference to fig. 1-5, the signaling and process flows for reporting positioning capabilities and determining and reporting positioning information include the stages shown. Flow 600 is an example and does not limit the disclosure. The flow 600 may be altered, for example, by adding, removing, rearranging, repeating, combining, executing stages concurrently, and/or splitting a single stage into multiple stages, examples of such alterations being discussed further below.
At stage 610, positioning capabilities are requested from UE 500 and provided by UE 500. The server 400 may send a location capability request 611 to the UE 500 for the location capability of the UE 500. The request 611 may be sent using LPP (LTE positioning protocol) to request that the UE 500 provide an indication of the positioning methods supported by the UE 500 and the positioning processing capabilities the UE 500 may have for the positioning methods and/or combinations of positioning methods.
The UE 500 responds to the positioning capability request 611 by sending a capability message 612 to the server 400, the capability message 612 indicating one or more positioning methods supported by the UE 500 for one or more corresponding frequency bands and possibly indicating positioning processing capabilities corresponding to at least some of the indicated positioning methods. The capabilities message 612 may also include other information (e.g., regarding other capabilities). Additionally or alternatively, UE 500 may send capability message 614 to TRP 300 and TRP 300 may send capability message 616 to server 400. Thus, flow 600 may include a transmit capability message 612 and/or may include transmit capability messages 614, 616.
The capability messages 612, 614, 616 may have multiple formats and/or content, and the capability messages 612, 614, 616 may not all have the same format or content. Referring also to fig. 7, the capability message 700 is an example of the capability message 612, 614, 616 and includes a band field 710, a positioning method field 720, and may also include a positioning processing capability field 730. The band field 710 includes one or more band indications for one or more bands for each of which the UE 500 supports one or more positioning methods, i.e., for which the UE 500 may perform one or more operations for the respective positioning method and provide resulting positioning information. Here, the capability message 700 includes band indications 712, 714 that indicate that the UE 500 supports one or more positioning methods for each of band 1 and band 2. These bands are separate (although possibly overlapping) locating signal bands from the communication bands for data and control information. For example, band 1 may be FR1 and band 2 may be FR 2.
The positioning method field 720 includes one or more indications of positioning methods supported by the UE 500 to process the positioning signals to determine positioning information. In this example, the location method field 720 is used to indicate whether the UE 500 supports one or more of four possible location methods (i.e., DL-TDOA location method, AoD location method, AoA location method, or multiple RTT method). This is an example, and positioning method field 720 may be used to indicate whether UE 500 supports more or fewer positioning methods and/or a different set of positioning methods (i.e., one or more of the omitted listed positioning methods and/or including one or more other positioning methods). Here, in the case where the positioning method field 720 indicates that any one of the four positioning methods is supported, the positioning method field 720 includes positioning method indications 721, 722, 723, 724, 725 that are four-bit character strings. Each bit indicates whether the corresponding positioning method is supported, where a value of 0 indicates not supported and a value of 1 indicates supported. In this example, four bits correspond to four methods of DL-TDOA, AoD, AoA, and multiple RTTs, respectively. Each of the four-bit strings respectively indicates one or more of four possible positioning methods that the UE 500 is configured to support the respective frequency band indicated by the respective frequency band indication 712, 714. Thus, the band indications 712, 714 indicate the respective frequency bands to which the corresponding positioning method indications 721 and 725 apply.
Each of the positioning method indications in positioning method field 720 may indicate a separate positioning method that UE 500 is configured to support or a combination of positioning methods that UE 500 is configured to simultaneously support. The capability message may include an explicit indication that multiple positioning methods are supported for simultaneous processing. Additionally or alternatively, the indication that multiple positioning methods are supported may be an implicit indication that the UE supports simultaneous processing of the indicated positioning methods. In the example shown in fig. 7, for band 1, a positioning method indication 721 of 0100 indicates that the UE 500 is configured to support only the AoD positioning method, a positioning method indication 722 of 1000 indicates that the UE 500 is configured to support only the DL-TDOA positioning method, and a positioning method indication 723 of 1100 indicates that the UE 500 is configured to support both the DL-TDOA positioning method and the AoD positioning method. For band 2, location method indication 724 of 0001 indicates that UE 500 is configured to support only multi-RTT location methods, and location method indication 725 of 0101 indicates that UE 500 is configured to support both AoD and multi-RTT location methods. Accordingly, the capability message 700 may indicate that the UE 500 (e.g., the processor 210 (which may implement the PD 219)) is configured to support a combination of positioning methods (in this example, the same combination of positioning methods for band 1 and band 2) that simultaneously process positioning signals to determine positioning information.
The positioning processing capability field 730 includes one or more indications of positioning processing capabilities for respective positioning methods or combinations of positioning methods supported by the UE 500 (as indicated by respective ones of the positioning method indications). In this example, the location processing capability field 730 corresponds to the location method capabilities of: a maximum frequency layer number (X1), a maximum number of TRPs per frequency layer (X2), a maximum number of PRS resources per TRP per frequency layer (X3), a maximum number of PRS resources per PRS resource set (X4), a maximum number of DL PRS resources per UE (X5), a maximum number of TRPs per all frequency layers per UE (X6), and a maximum number of PRS resources per frequency layer (X7). The capability message 700 comprises positioning processing capability indications 731, 732, 733, 734, 735, 736, each comprising values of positioning method capabilities X1-X7 corresponding to respective ones of the positioning method indications 721 and 725. As shown, more than one location processing capability indication may correspond to the same location method indication, where both location processing capability indications 735, 736 correspond to location method indication 725. One or more or even all of the values of positioning method capabilities X1-X7 may be the same in multiple positioning processing capability indications.
The positioning processing capability indication corresponding to the supported positioning method combinations may indicate the capabilities of the positioning method combinations or indicate the capabilities of each of the positioning methods separately. For example, the value X1 3 -X7 3 May be the capability of a combination of the DL-TDOA method and the AoD method, or may be the capability of each of the DL-TDOA method or the AoD method separately. If the value of the positioning processing capability indication corresponds to a positioning method combination, the capabilities may be assigned to different positioning methods by a default assignment known to both the UE 500 and the server 400, e.g. equally (or nearly equally). Location ofWhether the value of the physical capability indication corresponds to a positioning method combination or a positioning method alone may be known by the UE 500 and the server 400 (e.g., programmed into the UE 500 and the server 400) and/or may be indicated by the positioning processing capability indication.
The plurality of positioning processing capability indications corresponding to a single combination of supported positioning methods may individually indicate the capability of each of the positioning methods. For example, both positioning processing capability indications 735, 736 correspond to a positioning method indication 725 indicating that the UE 500 is configured to support both AoD methods and multi-RTT methods. Value X1 of location handling capability indication 735 5 -X7 5 May be a value for the capability that the UE 500 will provide for the DL-TDOA location method, and a value X1 for the location processing capability indication 736 6 -X7 6 May be the capability the UE 500 will provide for AoD methods, where the DL-TDOA method and the AoD method are implemented simultaneously.
The value of the positioning processing capability indication in the positioning processing capability field 730 may be different if there is a scheduled measurement gap(s). The value of one or more of the positioning method capabilities X1-X7 may provide more processing power (possibly including more buffering power) for times with measurement gaps than for times without measurement gaps. Thus, the positioning processing capability indication may comprise values of positioning method capabilities X1-X7 for when measurement gaps are present and for when measurement gaps are not present.
Positioning method in view of band combination
Positioning signal (e.g., PRS, SL-SRS, etc. for positioning) processing may be affected by the currently used combination of communication bands. For example, the processing power of processor 510 may be affected differently depending on which communication band is currently being used. Thus, the available processing power of processor 510 for processing positioning signals may be affected based on the communication band currently being used. Thus, the UE 500 may support different positioning methods and/or different combinations of positioning methods based on the current communications band and/or may have different positioning processing capabilities based on the current communications band. The description herein may refer to PRS, but the description may be applicable to other forms of positioning signals (e.g., SL-SRS for positioning, etc.).
At stage 620 of flow 600, reporting of one or more supported frequency band combinations and one or more corresponding positioning methods is triggered and performed. For example, at sub-stage 622, a trigger for UE 500 to report supported positioning methods and associated positioning processing capabilities for communication band combinations may be UE 500 sending a request 624 for a positioning session to server 400. As another example, a trigger for the UE 500 to report supported positioning methods and associated positioning processing capabilities for a combination of communication bands may be the server 400 initiating a positioning session with the UE 500 by sending an initiate positioning session message 626 to the UE 500. Another trigger may be the expiration of a timer (e.g., implemented by processor 510). Other triggers are also possible, such as an on-demand trigger that supports the indication or an intermittent (e.g., periodic) trigger that supports the indication.
In response to the trigger, the UE 500 sends a capability message 628 to the server 400, the capability message 628 indicating one or more supported band combinations and one or more corresponding supported positioning methods. The capability message 628 is sent using LPP signaling and may have various formats and/or content. Referring also to fig. 8, the capability message 800 is an example of the capability message 628 and indicates the positioning methods supported by the UE 500, the corresponding communication band combinations, and possibly the positioning processing capabilities corresponding to the indicated positioning methods and band combinations. The capability message 800 includes a band combination field 810, a positioning method field 820, and may include a positioning processing capability field 830. As with the capability message 700 (although not shown in fig. 6), the capability message 800 may be sent from the UE 500 to the TRP 300 (using RRC (radio resource control) signaling) and then from the TRP 300 to the server 400 (using NRPPa (new radio positioning protocol a) signaling).
The band combination field 810 includes one or more band combination indications for band combinations for each of which the UE 500 supports one or more positioning methods, i.e., for which the UE 500 may perform one or more operations of the respective positioning method and provide resulting positioning information. For example, the band combination field 810 may include an indication of a band combination included in a band combination list defined by 3GPP (third generation partnership project). Here, the capability message 800 includes a band combination indication 812, 814, 816 indicating that the UE 500 supports one or more positioning methods for each of the three band combinations, i.e., the combination of band 1(FB1) and band 2(FB2), the combination of FB1 and band 3(FB3), and the combination of band 4(FB4) and band 5(FB5) and band 6(FB 6). Labels FB1-FB6 are general labels and do not imply any relationship of frequency bands (e.g., FB1 is not necessarily continuous or even close to FB2, and FB2 is not necessarily a higher frequency band than FB 1). These combinations of frequency bands may be intra-band contiguous (within the same larger frequency band (e.g., FR1) and contiguous in frequency), intra-band non-contiguous (within the same larger frequency band but separated by a certain number of frequencies), or inter-band (within one or more of one larger frequency band and within one or more other of another larger frequency band, e.g., FR2, where the two larger frequency bands may be separated by a certain number of frequencies). The frequency band combination may have two or more frequency bands.
The positioning method field 820 includes one or more indications of positioning methods supported by the UE 500 to process positioning signals to determine positioning information. The positioning method field 820 is similar to the positioning method field 720, but has an entry corresponding to the corresponding band combination of the band combination field 810. The positioning method indicated in the positioning method field 820 may be more limited than the positioning method indicated in the positioning method field 720 of the capability message 700, for example, due to processing power and/or other UE resources that may be used and/or designated (reserved) for use in processing communication information (data and/or control information) in the band combination. In this example, the location method field 820 is used to indicate whether the UE 500 supports one or more of a DL-TDOA location method, an AoD location method, an AoA location method, or a multiple RTT method. This is an example, and the positioning method field 820 may be used to indicate whether the UE 500 supports more or fewer positioning methods and/or a different set of positioning methods (i.e., one or more of the omitted listed positioning methods and/or includes one or more other positioning methods). Here, in case the positioning method field 820 indicates support of any one of the four positioning methods, the positioning method field 820 includes positioning method indications 821, 822, 823, 824, 825, 826, 827 which are four-bit character strings respectively indicating that the UE 500 is configured to support one or more of the four indicated positioning methods of the respective band combinations indicated by the respective band combination indications 812, 814, 816. Thus, the frequency band combination indications 812, 814, 816 indicate the respective frequency bands to which the corresponding positioning method indications 821-827 are applicable.
Each of the positioning method indications in the positioning method field 820 may indicate a separate positioning method that the UE 500 is configured to support or a combination of positioning methods that the UE 500 is configured to support simultaneously. In the example shown in fig. 8, for a band combination of FB1-FB2, location method indication 821 indicates that UE 500 is configured to support only the AoD location method, location method indication 822 indicates that UE 500 is configured to support only the DL-TDOA location method, and location method indication 823 indicates that UE 500 is configured to support both the DL-TDOA location method and the multi-RTT location method. For the band combination of FB1-FB3, positioning method indication 824 indicates that UE 500 is configured to support only multi-RTT positioning methods, and positioning method indication 825 indicates that UE 500 is configured to support both AoD positioning methods and multi-RTT positioning methods. For the band combination of FB4-FB5-FB6, a positioning method indication 826 indicates that the UE 500 is configured to support only the DL-TDOA positioning method, and a positioning method indication 827 indicates that the UE 500 is configured to support only the multi-RTT positioning method. Thus, the capability message 800 may indicate that the UE 500 is configured to support a combination of positioning methods that simultaneously process positioning signals to determine positioning information.
The positioning processing capabilities field 830 includes one or more indications of positioning processing capabilities for respective positioning methods or combinations of positioning methods supported by the UE 500 (as indicated by respective ones of the positioning method indications). In this example, the location processing capability field 830 corresponds to the location method capability X1-X7 discussed above. The capability message 800 comprises location handling capability indications 831, 832, 833, 834, 835, 836, each comprising a value of a location method capability X1-X7 corresponding to a respective one of the location method indications 821-827. As shown, more than one positioning processing capability indication may correspond to the same positioning method indication, where both positioning processing capability indications 833, 834 correspond to the positioning method indication 825. One or more or even all of the values of positioning method capabilities X1-X7 may be the same in multiple positioning processing capability indications. The values of one or more of the positioning method capabilities X1-X7 in the capability message 800 may be more limited than the values of the positioning method capabilities X1-X7 in the capability message 700, e.g., providing one or more lower maximum values (e.g., due to reduced capacity for positioning processing as discussed herein when a communication band combination is in use). Only when the corresponding band combination is in use and is not only supported for use by the UE 500, the UE 500 may be limited to the capabilities provided by one of the positioning processing capability indications 831-836 (or other such indications).
The positioning processing capability indication corresponding to the supported positioning method combinations may indicate the capabilities of the positioning method combinations or indicate the capabilities of each of the positioning methods separately. For example, the value X1 7 -X7 7 May be the capabilities of a combination of the DL-TDOA method and the multi-RTT method (as indicated by location method indication 823), or may be the capabilities of each of the DL-TDOA method or the multi-RTT method separately. If the value of the positioning processing capability indication corresponds to a positioning method combination, the capabilities may be assigned to different positioning methods by a default assignment known to both the UE 500 and the server 400, e.g. equally (or nearly equally). Whether the value of the positioning processing capability indication corresponds to a positioning method combination or to a positioning method separately may be known by the UE 500 and the server 400 (e.g. programmed into the UE 500 and the server 400) and/or may be indicated by the positioning processing capability indication.
Multiple positioning processing capability indications corresponding to a single combination of supported positioning methods may be indicated individuallyThe capabilities of each of the positioning methods. For example, both positioning processing capability indications 833, 834 correspond to the positioning method indication 825 indicating that the UE 500 is configured to support both the AoD method and the multi-RTT method. Value X1 of location handling capability indication 833 9 -X7 9 May be a value for the capability that the UE 500 will provide for the DL-TDOA location method, and a value X1 for the location processing capability indication 834 10 -X7 10 May be the capability that the UE 500 will provide for the AoD method, where the DL-TDOA method and the AoD method are implemented simultaneously.
The value of the location processing capability indication in the location processing capability field 830 may be different if there is a scheduled measurement gap(s). The value of one or more of the positioning method capabilities X1-X7 may provide more processing power (possibly including more buffering power) for times with measurement gaps than for times without measurement gaps. Thus, the positioning processing capability indication may comprise values of positioning method capabilities X1-X7 for when measurement gaps are present and for when measurement gaps are not present.
Referring again to fig. 6, with further reference to fig. 1-5, 7 and 8, at stage 630, UE 500 may send a request 632 for TRP 300 to configure UE 500 to a particular communication band combination. Additionally or alternatively (as indicated by dashed line 634), server 400 may request TRP 300 to configure UE 500 to a particular communication band combination. For example, a request for a particular combination of communication bands may be sent such that UE 500 may accept and process more positioning signals, and/or may support more positioning methods, and/or may support different positioning methods, and/or may support a desired combination of positioning methods, and/or may provide one or more better positioning processing capabilities (e.g., relative to current capabilities). A band combination may be selected and requested to improve utilization of the potential processing capabilities of the UE 500 (e.g., change the current band combination to increase the processing effort that the UE 500 may use for positioning).
At stage 640, the UE 500 sends a current Carrier Aggregation (CA) status message 642 to the server 400. The current CA status message 642 indicates the band combination currently used by the UE 500 for communication with the TRP 300. Alternatively, TRP 300 may provide server 400 with the current CA status for UE 500. The current CA status may be provided by the UE 500 in stage 620 along with the capability message 628. As the current CA status may change, a current CA status message 642 may be sent to the server 400 repeatedly (e.g., periodically or otherwise (e.g., triggered on demand)). The on-demand trigger for sending the current CA status message 642 may be, for example, a CA status change, an opening of a location session (e.g., in response to message 626), a request 624 for a location session, and the like.
At stage 650, the server 400 may determine a PRS configuration for the UE 500 and send a PRS configuration 652 to the UE 500. The server 400 may use information (e.g., supported positioning methods and/or positioning processing capabilities) from the capability message 700 and/or the capability message 800 (and, in the case of the capability message 800, the current band combination reported at stage 640) to determine a PRS configuration (e.g., type of PRS and/or number of PRSs) to use. The PRS configuration may be determined to improve utilization of potential processing capabilities of the UE 500 (e.g., configure the PRS to increase processing effort that the UE 500 may use for positioning). Additionally or alternatively, the PRS configuration may be selected to reduce waste, e.g., TRP 300 sends UE 500 processing power of PRSs that UE 500 will not process (at least not fully process) due to insufficient capacity. PRS configuration 652 may be sent directly from server 400 to UE 500 using LPP signaling and/or sent from server 400 to TRP 300 using NRPPa signaling and from TRP 300 to UE 500 using LPP signaling.
At stage 660, the TRP 300 may provide the PRS 662 to the UE 500, and the UE 500 may measure the PRS at sub-stage 664 and simultaneously process the PRS to determine positioning information. For example, the UE 500 may concurrently process the PRSs 662 received at stage 660 according to the positioning capabilities (as needed) indicated in the capability message 700 or the capability message 800, including according to whether a measurement gap currently exists. UE 500 may determine positioning information such as one or more PRS measurements, one or more distances (e.g., to TRP 300), or a positioning estimate for UE 500 (e.g., based on one or more determined distances to one or more known locations of one or more corresponding positioning signal sources).
At stage 670, the UE 500 may provide the positioning information 672 determined at sub-stage 664 to the server 400, and the server 400 may use the positioning information 672 to determine the position of the UE 500. For example, if the positioning information 672 includes the position of the UE 500, the server 400 may use it as the position of the UE 500, or may use it in conjunction with other information (e.g., one or more distances, one or more PRS measurements) to determine the position of the UE 500. As another example, where the UE location is not provided in the positioning information 672, the server 400 may determine the UE 500 location using one or more distances and/or one or more PRS measurements of the positioning information 672. The UE 500 may include, along with the positioning information 672, one or more indications that the positioning information 672 corresponds to a particular combination of positioning methods used to determine the positioning information 672.
Referring to fig. 9, with further reference to fig. 1-8, a method 900 of determining positioning information includes the stages shown. However, the method 900 is merely exemplary and not limiting. The method 900 can be altered, e.g., by having stages added, removed, rearranged, repeated, combined, performed concurrently, and/or having single stages split into multiple stages.
At stage 910, method 900 includes: a capability indication is transmitted from a User Equipment (UE) to a network entity, the capability indication including a first positioning method indication indicating that the UE supports simultaneous processing of a first positioning method combination. For example, UE 500 (e.g., processor 510, possibly in conjunction with memory 530 and interface 520) may send capability message 612 (and/or capability message 614) to report positioning methods supported by the UE (specifically, UE 500 may be configured to support positioning methods that are processed concurrently to determine positioning information). The UE 500 (e.g., the processor 510 (e.g., the positioning method reporting unit 560), possibly in combination with the memory 530 and the interface 520) may, for example, send at least one of the positioning method indication 721-. The UE 500 may send the capability indication in response to the report trigger. The reporting trigger may be external to UE 500 (e.g., a request received from server 400 (e.g., request 611 or request 626 shown in fig. 6)) or internal to UE 500 (e.g., requesting a positioning session or expiration of a timer, etc.). The reporting trigger may be on-demand (e.g., a received request for a supported method, a request for a positioning session by server 400 or UE 500) or otherwise (e.g., scheduled (e.g., expiration of a timer)). The capability indication may comprise more information than the first positioning method indication. Processor 510 (possibly in conjunction with memory 530 and interface 520) may include a means for sending a capability indication.
At stage 920, method 900 includes: one or more first positioning signals are simultaneously processed according to a first positioning method combination to determine first positioning information for the UE. For example, processor 510 (e.g., positioning signal processing unit 550) may simultaneously process one or more positioning signals according to multiple (two or more) positioning methods, where the processing of the multiple methods overlap in time, e.g., as shown in sub-stage 664. Processor 510, possibly in conjunction with memory 530, may include means for simultaneously processing one or more positioning signals to determine positioning information for the UE (e.g., a location of UE 500 and/or one or more measurements (e.g., RSTD, RSRP, Rx-Tx)) according to a positioning method combination.
Implementations of the method 900 can include one or more of the following features. In an example implementation, the capability indication comprises a first frequency band indication indicating a first frequency band to which the first positioning method indication applies. For example, the UE 500 (e.g., the processor 510, possibly in conjunction with the memory 530) may include at least one of the positioning method indication 721 and 725 of the capability message 700 corresponding to the first band indication in the capability indication (e.g., the capability message 612). In another example implementation, the concurrency support indication includes: a second positioning method indication indicating that the UE supports simultaneous processing of a second positioning method combination; and a second frequency band indication indicating a second frequency band to which the second positioning method indication applies. For example, the UE 500 (e.g., the processor 510, possibly in conjunction with the memory 530) may include multiple ones of the positioning method indication 721 and the corresponding band indication 712, 714 in a capability indication, such as the capability message 612. In another example implementation, the method 900 may include: processing one or more second positioning signals simultaneously according to a second positioning method combination to determine second positioning information for the UE; reporting, to the network entity, second positioning information for the UE includes one or more measurements corresponding to a second positioning method combination. Processor 510 (possibly in conjunction with memory 530) may include means for simultaneously processing one or more second positioning signals according to a second positioning method combination. Processor 510, possibly in conjunction with memory 530 and interface 520 (e.g., wireless transmitter 242 and antenna 246), may include means for reporting that the second positioning information includes one or more measurements corresponding to the second positioning method combination.
Additionally or alternatively, the method 900 may include one or more of the following features. In an example implementation, the capability indication is to indicate a positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to the first positioning method combination. For example, UE 500 (e.g., processor 510, possibly in conjunction with memory 530) may include a location processing capability indication 733 corresponding to a combination of methods in location method indication 723 in capability message 700 and/or may include a location processing capability indication 831 corresponding to a combination of methods in location method indication 823 in capability message 800. In another example implementation, the capability indication includes a first positioning processing capability indication corresponding to a first positioning method of the first combination of positioning methods and a second positioning processing capability indication corresponding to a second positioning method of the first combination of positioning methods. For example, the UE 500 (e.g., the processor 510, possibly in conjunction with the memory 530) may include a positioning processing capability indication 733 and/or positioning processing capability indications 735, 736, respectively, corresponding to the combination of methods in the positioning method indications 723, 725 in the capability message 700, and/or may include a positioning processing capability indication 831 and/or positioning processing capability indications 834, respectively, corresponding to the combination of methods in the positioning method indications 823, 825 in the capability message 800.
Additionally or alternatively, the method 900 may include one or more of the following features. In an example implementation, the first positioning method combination comprises the first positioning method and the second positioning method, and wherein the capability indication comprises a third positioning method indication indicating a third positioning method, the UE configured to implement the third positioning method without simultaneously implementing either the first positioning method or the second positioning method. For example, UE 500 (e.g., processor 510, possibly in conjunction with memory 530) may include a positioning method indication (such as positioning method indication 721 or positioning method indication 821) that indicates a positioning method that processor 510 may implement without implementing another method (but which may implement the method with another method, e.g., as indicated by positioning method indication 723 or positioning method indication 825). In another example implementation, the first, second, and third positioning methods are all different positioning methods.
Additionally or alternatively, the method 900 may include one or more of the following features. In an example implementation, the capability indication comprises a first band combination indication indicating a first carrier aggregation band combination to which the first positioning method indication applies. For example, the UE 500 (e.g., the processor 510, possibly in conjunction with the memory 530) may include a band combination indication 812 associated with the positioning method indication 821. In another example implementation, the capability indication includes: a second positioning method indication indicating that the UE supports simultaneous processing of a second positioning method combination; and a second band combination indication indicating a second carrier aggregation band combination to which the second positioning method indication applies. For example, the UE 500 (e.g., the processor 510, possibly in conjunction with the memory 530) may comprise a plurality of frequency band combination indications, each associated with at least one corresponding positioning method indication, e.g., in the capability message 800, the frequency band combination indications 812, 814, 816 are associated with respective ones of the positioning method indications 821 and 827. In another example implementation, the first positioning method combination includes a first positioning method and a second positioning method, and wherein the capability indication indicates a positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to each of the first positioning method and the second positioning method. For example, UE 500 (e.g., processor 510, possibly in conjunction with memory 530) may provide location processing capabilities for each combination of methods, e.g., location processing capability indication 831 applied to the combination of methods indicated by location method indication 823, where these capabilities apply equally to each of the methods indicated by location method indication 823. In another example implementation, the first positioning method combination includes a first positioning method and a second positioning method, and wherein the capability indication indicates a positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to the combined first and second positioning methods. For example, the UE 500 (e.g., the processor 510, possibly in conjunction with the memory 530) may provide location processing capabilities for each combination of methods, e.g., location processing capability indication 831 applied to the combination of methods indicated by the location method indication 823, where these capabilities apply to the combined requirements of the methods indicated by the location method indication 823. In another example implementation, the first positioning method combination includes a first positioning method and a second positioning method, and wherein the capability indication indicates a first positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to the first positioning method and a second positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to the second positioning method. For example, the UE 500 (e.g., the processor 510, possibly in conjunction with the memory 530) may provide multiple positioning processing capability indications per combination of methods, e.g., positioning processing capability indications 833, 834 applied to combinations of methods indicated by the positioning method indication 825, wherein capabilities of the positioning processing capability indication 833 apply to a first listed method in the combinations indicated by the positioning method indication 825 and capabilities of the positioning processing capability indication 834 apply to a second listed method in the combinations indicated by the positioning method indication 825. A capability indication may be provided for each of the methods in the combination (which may be more than two methods). One or more of the capabilities of the different capability indications may be different. For three or more methods in a combination of methods, multiple methods may have the same capability, while at least one method may have a different set of capabilities (i.e., at least one capability value is different from the other sets of capabilities).
Additionally or alternatively, the method 900 may include one or more of the following features. In an example implementation, the first positioning method combination includes at least two of a downlink time difference of arrival (DL-TDOA), an angle of emission (AoD), an angle of incidence (AoA), and a multiple round trip time (multiple RTT). Thus, a combination of positioning methods may include any two of these methods or any three of these methods or all four of these methods. In another example implementation, the first positioning method combination includes AoD and DL-TDOA, the capability indication includes a second positioning method indication indicating that the UE supports simultaneous processing of the second positioning method combination, and the second positioning method combination includes multiple RTTs and AoD.
Additionally or alternatively, the method 900 may include one or more of the following features. In an example implementation, the method 900 includes: reporting to the network entity first positioning information of the UE corresponds to a first positioning method combination. For example, the UE 500 may include, along with the positioning information 672, one or more indications that the positioning information 672 corresponds to a combination of positioning methods used to determine the positioning information 672. Processor 510, possibly in conjunction with memory 530 and interface 520 (e.g., wireless transmitter 242 and antenna 246), may include means for reporting that the first positioning information corresponds to a first combination of positioning methods. In another example implementation, the network entity is a location server.
Other considerations
Other examples and implementations are within the scope of the disclosure and the appended claims. For example, due to the nature of software and computers, the functions described above may be implemented using software executed by a processor, hardware, firmware, hard wiring, or any combination of these. Features that implement functions may also be physically located at various locations, including being distributed such that portions of functions are implemented at different physical locations. Unless otherwise specified, interconnected or communicating components (functional or otherwise) shown in the figures and/or discussed herein are communicatively coupled. That is, they may be directly or indirectly connected to enable communication therebetween.
As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" also include the plural forms unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. As used herein, the terms "comprises," "comprising," "includes," and/or "including" specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
Further, as used herein, "or" as used in a list of items (ending with "at least one of" or one or more of ") indicates a list of disjunctive, such that, for example, a list of" A, B or at least one of C "or a list of" A, B or one or more of C "means a, or B, or C, or AB (a and B), or AC (a and C), or BC (B and C), or ABC (i.e., a and B and C), or a combination with more than one feature (e.g., AA, AAB, ABBC, etc.). Thus, recitation that an item (e.g., processor) is configured to perform a function with respect to at least one of a or B means: the item may be configured to perform a function with respect to a, or may be configured to perform a function with respect to B, or may be configured to perform a function with respect to a and B. For example, the phrase "the processor is configured to measure at least one of a or B" means: the processor may be configured to measure a (and may or may not be configured to measure B), or may be configured to measure B (and may or may not be configured to measure a), or may be configured to measure a and measure B (and may be configured to select which one or both of a and B to measure). Similarly, the recitation of a unit for measuring at least one of a or B includes: a unit for measuring a (which may or may not be able to measure B), or a unit for measuring B (and may or may not be configured to measure a), or a unit for measuring a and B (which may or may not be able to select which one or both of a and B to measure). As another example, with respect to an item (e.g., a processor) being configured to perform at least one of function X or function Y means: the item may be configured to perform function X, or may be configured to perform function Y, or may be configured to perform both function X and function Y. For example, the phrase "the processor is configured to at least one of measure X or measure Y" means: the processor may be configured to measure X (and may or may not be configured to measure Y), or may be configured to measure Y (and may or may not be configured to measure X), or may be configured to measure X and measure Y (and may be configured to select which one or both of X and Y to measure).
And may be varied substantially according to specific requirements. For example, customized hardware might also be used and/or particular elements might be implemented in hardware, software executed by a processor (including portable software, such as applets, etc.), or both. In addition, connections to other computing devices, such as network input/output devices, may be employed.
The systems and devices discussed above are examples. Various configurations may omit, replace, or add various processes or components as appropriate. For example, features described with respect to certain configurations may be combined in various other configurations. Different aspects and elements of these configurations may be combined in a similar manner. Furthermore, the technical developments and thus many of these elements are examples and do not limit the scope of the disclosure or claims.
As used herein, unless otherwise specified, a statement that a function or operation is "based on" an item or condition means that the function or operation is based on the item or condition, and can be based on one or more items and/or conditions in addition to the item or condition.
A wireless communication system is one in which communications are transmitted wirelessly (i.e., by propagation of electromagnetic and/or acoustic waves through the air space, rather than by wires or other physical connections). A wireless communication network may not have all communications transmitted wirelessly, but is configured to have at least some communications transmitted wirelessly. Furthermore, the term "wireless communication device" or similar terms does not require that the functionality of the device be exclusively or equally primarily for communication, or that the device be a mobile device, but rather that the device include wireless communication capabilities (one-way or two-way), e.g., including at least one radio (each radio being part of a transmitter, receiver, or transceiver) for wireless communication.
Specific details are given in the description to provide a thorough understanding of example configurations (including implementations). However, configurations may be practiced without these specific details. For example, well-known circuits, processes, algorithms, structures, and techniques have been shown without unnecessary detail in order to avoid obscuring the configurations. This description provides example configurations only, and does not limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the claims. Rather, the foregoing description of the configurations provides a description for implementing the described techniques. Various changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements without departing from the scope of the disclosure.
The terms "processor-readable medium," "machine-readable medium," and "computer-readable medium" as used herein refer to any medium that participates in providing data that causes a machine to operation in a specific fashion. Using a computing platform, various processor-readable media may be involved in providing instructions/code to a processor for execution and/or may be used to store and/or carry such instructions/code (e.g., as signals). In many implementations, the processor-readable medium is a physical and/or tangible storage medium. Such a medium may take many forms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media and volatile media. Non-volatile media includes, for example, optical and/or magnetic disks. Volatile media includes, but is not limited to, dynamic memory.
Having described several example configurations, various modifications, alternative constructions, and equivalents may be used without departing from the scope of the disclosure. For example, the above elements may be components of a larger system, where other rules may take precedence over or otherwise modify the application of the invention. Further, various operations may be performed before, during, or after the above elements are considered. Accordingly, the above description does not limit the scope of the claims.
A statement that a value exceeds (or is greater than or above) a first threshold value is equivalent to a statement that the value meets or exceeds a second threshold value that is slightly greater than the first threshold value, e.g., at the resolution of the computing system, the second threshold value is a value that is higher than the first threshold value. A statement that a value is less than (or within or below) a first threshold value is equivalent to a statement that the value is less than or equal to a second threshold value that is slightly below the first threshold value, e.g., at the resolution of the computing system, the second threshold value is a value that is below the first threshold value.

Claims (38)

1. A User Equipment (UE), comprising:
a transceiver configured to receive a positioning signal;
A memory; and
a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory, configured to:
transmitting, via the transceiver, a capability indication to a network entity, the capability indication comprising a first positioning method indication indicating that the processor supports simultaneous processing of a first positioning method combination; and
processing one or more first positioning signals simultaneously according to the first positioning method combination to determine first positioning information for the UE.
2. The UE of claim 1, wherein the capability indication comprises a first frequency band indication indicating a first frequency band to which the first positioning method indication applies.
3. The UE of claim 2, wherein the capability indication comprises:
a second positioning method indication indicating that the processor supports simultaneous processing of a second positioning method combination; and
a second frequency band indication indicating a second frequency band to which the second positioning method indication applies;
wherein the processor is configured to: processing one or more second positioning signals simultaneously according to the second positioning method combination to determine second positioning information for the UE.
4. The UE of claim 3, wherein the processor is further configured to: reporting the second positioning information of the UE to the network entity includes one or more measurements corresponding to the second positioning method combination.
5. The UE of claim 1, wherein the capability indication is to indicate a positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to the first positioning method combination.
6. The UE of claim 5, wherein the capability indication comprises: a first positioning processing capability indication corresponding to a first positioning method of the first combination of positioning methods, and a second positioning processing capability indication corresponding to a second positioning method of the first combination of positioning methods.
7. The UE of claim 1, wherein the first positioning method combination comprises a first positioning method and a second positioning method, and wherein the capability indication comprises a third positioning method indication indicating a third positioning method, the processor configured to implement the third positioning method without simultaneously implementing the first positioning method or the second positioning method.
8. The UE of claim 7, wherein the first, second, and third positioning methods are all different positioning methods.
9. The UE of claim 1, wherein the capability indication comprises a first band combination indication indicating a first carrier aggregation band combination to which the first positioning method indication applies.
10. The UE of claim 9, wherein the capability indication comprises:
a second positioning method indication indicating that the processor supports simultaneous processing of a second positioning method combination; and
a second band combination indication indicating a second carrier aggregation band combination to which the second positioning method indicates is applicable.
11. The UE of claim 9, wherein the first positioning method combination comprises a first positioning method and a second positioning method, and wherein the capability indication indicates a positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to each of the first positioning method and the second positioning method.
12. The UE of claim 9, wherein the first positioning method combination comprises a first positioning method and a second positioning method, and wherein the capability indication is to indicate a positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to the first positioning method and the second positioning method combined.
13. The UE of claim 9, wherein the first positioning method combination comprises a first positioning method and a second positioning method, and wherein the capability indication is to indicate a first positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to the first positioning method and a second positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to the second positioning method.
14. The UE of claim 1, wherein the first positioning method combination includes at least two of a downlink time difference of arrival (DL-TDOA), an angle of emission (AoD), an angle of incidence (AoA), and a multiple round trip time (multiple RTT).
15. The UE of claim 14, wherein the first positioning method combination comprises AoD and DL-TDOA, wherein the capability indication comprises a second positioning method indication indicating that the processor supports simultaneous processing of a second positioning method combination, and wherein the second positioning method combination comprises multiple RTTs and AoD.
16. The UE of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to: reporting, to the network entity, the first positioning information of the UE corresponds to the first positioning method combination.
17. A method of determining positioning information, the method comprising:
transmitting, from a User Equipment (UE), a capability indication to a network entity, the capability indication comprising a first positioning method indication indicating that the UE supports simultaneous processing of a first positioning method combination; and
processing one or more first positioning signals simultaneously according to the first positioning method combination to determine first positioning information for the UE.
18. The method of claim 17, wherein the capability indication comprises a first frequency band indication indicating a first frequency band to which the first positioning method indication applies.
19. The method of claim 18, wherein the capability indication comprises:
a second positioning method indication indicating that the UE supports simultaneous processing of a second positioning method combination; and
a second frequency band indication indicating a second frequency band to which the second positioning method is indicated.
20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:
processing one or more second positioning signals simultaneously according to the second positioning method combination to determine second positioning information for the UE; and
reporting, to the network entity, the second positioning information of the UE includes one or more measurements corresponding to the second positioning method combination.
21. The method of claim 17, wherein the capability indication indicates a positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to the first positioning method combination.
22. The method of claim 21, wherein the capability indication comprises: a first positioning processing capability indication corresponding to a first positioning method of the first combination of positioning methods, and a second positioning processing capability indication corresponding to a second positioning method of the first combination of positioning methods.
23. The method of claim 17, wherein the first positioning method combination comprises a first positioning method and a second positioning method, and wherein the capability indication comprises a third positioning method indication indicating a third positioning method, the UE configured to implement the third positioning method without simultaneously implementing the first positioning method or the second positioning method.
24. The method of claim 23, wherein the first, second, and third positioning methods are all different positioning methods.
25. The method of claim 17, wherein the capability indication comprises a first band combination indication indicating a first carrier aggregation band combination to which the first positioning method indication applies.
26. The method of claim 25, wherein the capability indication comprises:
a second positioning method indication indicating that the UE supports simultaneous processing of a second positioning method combination; and
a second band combination indication indicating a second carrier aggregation band combination to which the second positioning method indicates is applicable.
27. The method of claim 25, wherein the first positioning method combination comprises a first positioning method and a second positioning method, and wherein the capability indication indicates a positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to each of the first positioning method and the second positioning method.
28. The method of claim 25, wherein the first positioning method combination comprises a first positioning method and a second positioning method, and wherein the capability indication indicates a positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to the first positioning method and the second positioning method combined.
29. The method of claim 25, wherein the first positioning method combination comprises a first positioning method and a second positioning method, and wherein the capability indication indicates a first positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to the first positioning method and a second positioning processing capability of the UE corresponding to the second positioning method.
30. The method of claim 17, wherein the first positioning method combination includes at least two of a downlink time difference of arrival (DL-TDOA), an angle of emission (AoD), an angle of incidence (AoA), and a multiple round trip time (multiple RTT).
31. The method of claim 17, wherein the first positioning method combination comprises AoD and DL-TDOA, wherein the capability indication comprises a second positioning method indication indicating that the UE supports simultaneous processing of a second positioning method combination, and wherein the second positioning method combination comprises multiple RTTs and AoD.
32. The method of claim 17, further comprising: reporting, to the network entity, the first positioning information of the UE corresponds to the first positioning method combination.
33. The method of claim 17, wherein the network entity is a location server.
34. A User Equipment (UE), comprising:
a capability unit to send a capability indication to a network entity, the capability indication comprising a first positioning method indication indicating that the UE supports simultaneous processing of a first positioning method combination; and
a positioning unit to simultaneously process one or more first positioning signals according to the first positioning method combination to determine first positioning information of the UE.
35. The UE of claim 34, wherein the capability indication comprises a first frequency band indication indicating a first frequency band to which the first positioning method indication applies.
36. The UE of claim 34, wherein the capability indication comprises a first band combination indication indicating a first carrier aggregation band combination to which the first positioning method indication applies.
37. A non-transitory processor-readable storage medium comprising processor-readable instructions to cause a processor of a User Equipment (UE) to:
Sending a capability indication to a network entity, the capability indication comprising a first positioning method indication indicating that the UE supports simultaneous processing of a first positioning method combination; and
concurrently processing one or more first positioning signals according to the first positioning method combination to determine first positioning information for the UE.
38. The storage medium of claim 37, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions to cause the processor to: reporting to the network entity that the first positioning information of the UE corresponds to the first positioning method combination.
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